Robin's Romantic Revival
by Serphosion
Summary: Robin finally returns after killing off his arch nemesis, and reconciles with his family. Of course, some silly (and sometimes fluffy) events happen! (Rated T for some naughty words)
1. Flashback 1: Prologue

**A/N: Welcome to the prologue! This chapter is the also first flashback chapter, in which a certain dragon is slain.**

* * *

The wind blew with a furious rage, the stench of death washed over the Shepherds like a wave. They were on the back of the Fell Dragon himself, fighting to survive. Hordes upon hordes of Risen crawled out of the beast's back, and shambled their way over to the warriors. Chrom and Robin were on the Dragon's neck, fighting with his human vessel. Robin had taken a spear of lightning to the arm, and was desperately yelling out to his friend.

"Chrom! To your! left!" the blue haired Lord immediately leapt out of the way of a large bolt of dark energy. Robin panted as he lay on the ground clutching his arm.

" **YOU CURSED HUMANS... STOP DELAYING THE INEVITABLE."**

"You will NEVER stop us, foolish dragon! You shall never know the light of day again!"

" **THE SUN IS INCONSEQUENTIAL, PRINCE. I ALL I REQUIRE IS... THE DARKNESS** **!"** Chrom jumped forwards and slashed at Grima's human body, narrowly dodging a pillar of flame. The Fell Dragon's body twisted as its chest split open. It attempted to fight back, but Chrom thrust Falchion forwards again, impaling the vessel.

" **URK... THIS IS A MINOR... SETBACK!"** Grima thrashed as he attempted to escape.

"Robin! I'm going to land the final blow!" Chrom shouted, pulling Falchion from Grima's chest. Robin shakily got up.

"N...No."

"Robin? Wha-"

"Wind!" Robin used a gentle breeze from his Wind tome to knock Chrom over.

"Gods! Robin, what are you-ROBIN?" Chrom went to get up but Robin stopped coming any closer him with a small barrier of lightning magic.

" **WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?"** Grima shouted, but was too wounded to fight back.

"You should know fully well, Dragon," Robin spat, "you have caused countless atrocities, not just in this time but in many others. You have caused suffering and grief throughout the land. The Shepherds, my loyal, cherished friends, have trudged through two wars because of you. They have lost family, nearly losing their own lives, for your own dastardly deeds." Robin pulled a Levin Sword out of his pocket, and swung at Grima.

"ROBIN NO! STOP!" Chrom shouted and tried to cross the barrier, but was stunned by a sudden stray bolt.

"Father!" Lucina came running over when she heard him shouting. She was fighting alongside Morgan to stop any more of the Risen from getting up the neck, but when she looked around she saw all the Risen had stopped, and were staring at the Dragon's head. Lucina's eyes followed theirs, and immediately saw what they were looking at.

"...Robin..." Lucina gasped, "ROBIN?!"

Robin struck Grima with several different swings, tearing jagged gashes down the vessel's body.

"This was for all the Plegians that you twisted and killed!"

"This is for the Valmese caught in Walhart's conquest!"

"This is for Emmeryn, the kindest and most just Exalt to have ever lived!"

"And this one is for all the future children whose lives were robbed and ruined because of you!"

"And this one... Is... For... MY FAMILY!" Robin stabbed his sword directly down, straight through the vessel's head.

"ROBIN, NO! YOU PROMISED ME!" Lucina ran at the barrier over and over, ignoring the jolts of electricity that shocked her every time she did. All of the other Shepherds had dispatched the now-still Risen, and had run up the neck to see what was going on. Many of them wore shocked expressions, others refused to see what was in front of them.

"F-father?!" Morgan went to run forwards, but decided against it. She couldn't bring herself to go near him.

" **NO... NOOOOOO! YOU... WRETCHED... BASTARD...I WAS SO CLOSE!"** Grima screamed as loud as he could, but his body was beginning to burn up. The colossal dragon head watching this all unfold could do nothing but roar as it realised it would soon sink into the abyss. Grima's vessel became nothing more than purple wisps, carried by the wind. The Fell Dragon's body slowly fell and crashed to the ground, sloping gently as it ran into a cliff face. Grima's eyes went dim; he couldn't make a single sound as his life was rightfully cut from him. His back shuddered, but so gently none of the Shepherds were in any danger of falling off.

"It's...Over..." Robin fell to his knees with a pained cry. The barrier separating him from the others dissipated. Chrom and Lucina ran over to him as fast as they could.

"ROBIN YOU IDIOT! WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?" Chrom shook his friend's shoulders. Robin meekly looked at his comrade.

"I'm not going to allow... Him to-AGHHH!" Robin's body contorted as his hands and feet began to disappear.

"ROBIN... YOU PROMISED ME THAT YOU WOULD LET FATHER KILL HIM..." Lucina choked back a sob as she held the dying man in her arms.

"I'm sorry, but... You should-UGH...You should know by now I have a h-habit of lying..." he tried to smile but cried out in agony as his body further disintegrated Chrom and Lucina both had tears streaming down their faces.

"I... I..." Chrom looked for words, anything to say, but couldn't think of anything. Lucina buried her face in Robin's chest, and let out a whimper of despair.

"Don't... worry..." with the last vague few wisps of him that were left, Robin, wiped the tears form Lucina's cheek. "I'll-s-see... You again... Just hold...On..." Robin's head rolled backwards as the last of his body vanished, gone with the wind.

The other Shepherd all looked on. Many of them were on their knees, or were giving each other a shoulder to cry on. Morgan knelt on the ground with her hood over her face, shivering. Lucina let out a small tear-riddled scream, one that was full of sheer anguish. Chrom simply put a hand on her shoulder, and shook his head.

"I can't say I agree with what you did, I can't agree at all honesty... But, I know that...I'll see you again, Robin. I know I will..."

The march back to Ylisse had been one that was incredibly bitter sweet. They had beaten the Fell Dragon once and for all, but at the cost of one of their dearest friends. They had decided to try and focus on all the positive parts of his life in order to lighten the mood, which worked for the most part. Chrom had kept a happy face about it all; if anything it had hardened him and made his inner strength incredibly prominent. He simply smiled and shared funny tales with the other Shepherds as they travelled. Morgan had barely recovered her mental state. The other future children had taken her under their wing, and they spent the march back explaining how things were going to get better, and what they'll all do now that they have their entire lives free from Grima's clutches. Lucina on the other hand had not spoken to anyone during the course of the four-day march. When they were walking she would stay by Chrom, but off to the side where she wasn't easily noticeable. When they stopped to make camp, she would disappear for hours on end. Once they had reached Ylisse, they were greeted with cheers and joy from all of the people of Ylisstol. In the evening, the Shepherds had a party in celebration of Grima's demise, but it was also a vigil for the fall through the air of their true, wise friend named Robin. A colossal group of people had gathered to watch Chrom give a speech, the Shepherds were all lined up in rows beneath him. The Exalt took a deep breath, and walked up to the wooden podium in front of him.

"Fellow Shepherds...Fellow friends... People of Ylisstol... Just four days ago, our ultimate threat was slain. The Fell Dragon is no more. After two large scale wars, many sacrifices and unbearable amounts of turmoil, we have finally achieved global peace." he took a second to breathe, and to look at the crowds who were all listening intently. "But, this peace came at an incredibly heavy price. After the untimely death of my sister, I vowed to make sure that nobody in my family would be lost again, but I have failed in that regard. As you can clearly see, our dear friend Robin is no longer with us. He took the final blow for us all, and brought himself down with the Dragon. He was one of the wisest and funniest friends I ever had. We shared many moments, some funny, some sad... But at the end of the day, he would always be the one to say 'I'll try and fix that hole in the wall,' or 'don't worry, I'll do your paperwork for you.' He was generous and kind to all those that he met, even for those we had to oppose in battle. He carried the burden of so many deaths on his shoulders for the rest of us." looking down at the Shepherds, Frederick had stepped forwards, holding a pure white candle. Using a small piece of flint, he lit the candle, and held it up to Chrom, who placed it on the podium in front of him. "Today, the Shepherds have lit this candle in his honour. We hope that it will shine as bright as he always did, for days to come. Although he is gone now, I know that one day, we will all see him again. In a better life." Chrom wiped a few stray tears from his face and stepped back. The crowd applauded the Exalt, some of them stepping forwards to talk to the Shepherds and to share their sympathies. That evening, although it was full of grieving and memories of the fallen, would be recounted by all of the Shepherds as one of their favourite evenings; where they got to bond and know each other even better than before...

...And all because an amnesiac who woke up in a field decided to help Chrom fight a group of bandits.

 **A/N: And there we have the prologue! I wonder if anyone will get the Lord Of The Flies reference... That book is a good read.**


	2. Chapter 1: Re-Awakening

Darkness. As far as the tactician could see, there was the same hollow emptiness. Grima's spirit had snarled and fumed and screamed-trying to drag Robin to hell with him. His attempts had fallen flat on their face, and Robin simply looked on as Grima became nothing more than furious whisper that soon faded from his mind. He had wandered about in the darkness for a while, but everywhere he went there was still nothing. Sometimes he would feel a rush of wind as some spiritual energy flittered about in the purgatory but apart from that this plane of existence was barren.

"I'm having soooo much fun here!" Robin stood with his arms outstretched, laughing merrily into the abyss. "I love being in a big pit of nothing! It's real fun in here! You can walk around, get slightly cold, and talk to nobody but yourself! What a fun time!" He fell backwards and landed on the pitch black ground with a thud. "Oh, look! The ground feels like..." he patted the ground with his hand "abso-goddamn-lutely nothing!" he had no idea how long he had been in limbo for (not that he cared anyway) and was getting bored. At least when Grima was still there they had both come to a mutual understanding that they both hated each other's guts. They also had a heartfelt discussion about broccoli in the last few minutes (at least it felt like minutes) before Grima's soul was torn away from the dark realm. "I'm going to lose my mind in here... I'm already seeing stuff." he squinted his eyes a bright light opened up above him. " _Hang on a minute,"_ he thought to himself, " _I don't remember light being a thing in-"_ and then everything went blank.

* * *

"Reports have come back from Ferox, milord."

"Oh? Any news?"

"Unfortunately no, milord." Frederick bowed his head.

"I see... As usual, then." Chrom nodded. The two of them were strolling through a field on the outskirts of Ylisstol. Whenever Chrom had to duel with unpleasant thoughts he would go for a walk. He found that gazing into the grass in front of him was a good way of dealing with stress.

"Come on you slowpokes! I haven't got all day!" Lissa had joined the two men on this walk, because she "needed some exercise" (according to Frederick) and had run ahead; she impatiently waited for them to catch up before dashing off again.

"Milady, please wait! You'll tire yourself out if you-"Lissa let out a small gasp and suddenly came to a dead halt.

"Sister? Are you ok?" Lissa rarely ever stopped halfway through running, even if there was danger right in her way. Chrom had jogged forward to catch up with her. She was staring forwards, pointing in a few feet ahead of herself.

"Over there... Is that..." Chrom followed her outstretched hand and saw a dark figure lying on the grass in the distance. He took a half step back in shock, rubbing his eyes and looking again.

"It... It can't be..." Chrom broke into a sprint and ran forwards, Lissa followed suit. Noticing the urgency of the situation, Frederick tagged along behind them.

"ROBIN!" Chrom and Lissa yelled simultaneously as the approached the unconscious Plegian lying on the ground. The Exalt put a hand on Robin's chest and shook him gently.

"Robin! Robin please, wake up!" Lissa had grabbed Robin's right arm and felt for any sign of a pulse.

"Ngh... My head..." Robin mumbled quietly, moving his eyes slightly. "Oh gods Robin! Stay with us!" Chrom shouted and shook his friend a little harder.

"Milord! Do you require anything?"

"I need you to go back to the castle! Tell anyone you can that Robin's-"

"...Chrom?" Robin's eyes opened slightly. Chrom stared intently into the hazel irises. Robin's eyes snapped open. "Chrom?! Am I... Alive?"

"Yes, Robin... You're alive." Chrom let a few tears of joy run down his face.

"Dammit Robin! Never do a disappearing act like that again! Two years was too long!" Lissa tried frowning, but couldn't. Robin winced a little.

"Two... YEARS?!" he wriggled a little, trying to get on his feet. Chrom helped him get up, giving his friend a quick embrace, a gesture that Robin accepted heartily.

"Unfortunately so. But that doesn't matter. You're back with us now." Robin glanced at his left hand, and noticed the horrific glyph that had once adorned it was gone.  
"I watched Grima die." he held his hand up so that the others could see, "he won't be bothering us anymore." Lissa stared at his bare hand in awe. Chrom did the same, but with some relief mixed in too.

"Milord, perhaps we should get Robin back to Ylisstol? I'm sure the population would wonder why their Exalt has been out in a field for the best part of four hours." Chrom's mouth curled into a mirthful smile.

"Yeah! We need to tell that other's that Robin's back!" Frederick and Lissa both turned to return back the way they had come from. Robin took a step forwards and would have fallen to the ground if Chrom hadn't caught him.

"Are you alright?" Robin steadied himself and took another step.

"I'm fine, I'll have to get readjusted to walking on something that isn't... Nothing." he stepped forward gingerly, but eventually got back to his normal walking pace as the group carried on.

"So, what does death feel like? Is it itchy?"

"Well, you can't really feel anything. It's like being suspended in the air but... How did Miriel put it... Gravity! Gravity still applies. There's this slight but constant feel of falling downwards. But that's not really death, that was just purgatory..."

"Aww! So there's no party hats _or_ any kind of bed?" Lissa huffed and Robin shrugged.

"At least I had Grima to talk to for... A while. Although he was mostly just screaming and trying to grab hold of me. We did have a nice chat about broccoli, though."

"Broccoli? Gods, of all the things you talked about vegetables." Chrom shook his head in disbelief.

"Turns out he hates the stuff. He wanted it gone more than he wanted humans gone."

"I read about that once in a book Laurent loaned me. I believe that the substance contained species of bacteria that mutated and caused a global scale disease that killed off the majority of Dragonkind." Frederick chipped in to share his knowledge.

"I was expecting a depressing and somewhat philosophical talk about the afterlife, but we're here discussing food. How times have changed, eh?" Robin and Chrom both laughed, reminiscing all the time they had spent before Grima interrupted.

"It doesn't feel like two years have passed. I hope nothing's changed too drastically." Chrom gave his friend a reassuring look. "Don't worry. The Shepherds are mainly all situated in a refurbished village that lies just south of Ylisstol. We rebuilt the place after the Risen had destroyed it, and it's our main base- the Shepherd's Headquarters, if you will." Robin liked the sound of that. He couldn't bear to see all his friends part ways-not just yet.

"The Shepherds leave from time to time to go visit family, make some gold, you know, that kind of thing. As far as I know only myself, Frederick, Lucina and-"

"Oh gods, Lucina?! Is she alright?" Robin suddenly started walking faster, nearly breaking into a run.

"When you... Left, she took it pretty hard. It wasn't a pleasant sight." Chrom looked at the ground and had to grab Robin by the hood of his cloak to stop him running off. "It took her until the end of the first year to pull herself together. She and Morgan had a fight once, at the Feroxi tournament. They're a lot better than they were before, but I have the feeling that you're going to be in a spot of trouble once they see you." the words had hit Robin like a ballista shot.

"Oh gods, no... I... I had to do what I felt was right. At the time, that was killing Grima myself." Robin slowed down and locked eyes with Chrom, "in hindsight, I still stand by that decision. I just wish I hadn't kept that plan to myself until the end." Chrom sighed and looked away.

"You took the hit for us all, and I appreciate that, but without you around we all struggled in a way. Frederick and I were overrun with paperwork, Lucina was a wreck, and the others had all parted ways until we decided to maintain a headquarters. In a sense, Grima's demise brought about more troubles for the Shepherds than-" Lissa slapped him before he could finish.

"You _can't_ look at things that way! Robin made sure that everyone would be able to live in peace and that all of our kids and grandkids can too! Just because you had more work to do doesn't automatically mean that everything's bad!" Robin stared ahead and twiddled his thumbs as Chrom and Lissa bickered back and forth. Frederick approached him, and looked off into the distance.

"We're approaching Ylisstol now. You might want to brace yourself- you may find a swarm of people around you shortly."

"Ah, thanks for the warning. I hope nobody rips my cloak." he never admitted it, but he loved his tactician robes. They were comfy, had lots of pocket space, and the colours were nice too.

"Oh, and Robin? It's good to have you back." Frederick held out his and hand and Robin shook it firmly.

"Trust me Frederick it _feels_ great to be back."

* * *

"Robin! Roobbiiiinn!"

"Robin teach me how to be a tactician!"

"I thought you were dead?"

"Excuse us, everyone. Robin is very tired and needs some rest." large crowds of people had formed to try and catch a glimpse of the legendary tactician's return. Frederick had made sure to keep a space clear for Robin to walk through without getting ripped to pieces by the crowd grabbing at his cloak. Chrom and Lissa were behind them, trying their best to wave and smile at the crowd as they group headed towards the castle.

"That was more stressful than I thought it would be," Robin wiped his forehead with his arm, "but I have the feeling the worst is yet to come."

"Don't worry, if she beats you up _too_ badly then I might be on hand with a healing staff."

"Heh, thanks. Wait... Might?!" Lissa giggled.

"What can I say? Part of me wants to see this go down!" Robin shuddered and silently prayed to Naga that he would walk away with all of his limbs intact. He knew how his fiancé could react when her temper flared, and it was one of few things he never wanted to see in his life.

"...The couple looked out over the flaming remains of the castle and stayed huddled together. No matter what became of them afterwards, they knew they still had each other... The end."

"No way! Is that _seriously_ how it ends?!" Sumia had spent the last few days reading 'Ribald Tales of the Faith War' to Morgan. It gave them both something to do, considering Chrom kept going out for walks and sending off search parties.

"Yep, that's the end!"

"Are you kidding? No more saucy love-making or murder? They just look at their burning home and go 'yeah, that's cool?' That really blows."

"I think it made for a lovely ending, Morgan. It shows that even after all they've been through, the prince and-"

"Hello, Milady. Milord and I have returned." Frederick bowed as he entered the hall where the two were sitting. Chrom and Lissa swiftly came into the room after him.

"Hi darling! How did your walk go?" Sumia closed the book and got up, making her way to the trio.

"It was fine, dear. We... Uh... Well, we have some news."

"Oh? What kind of news?"

"It's hard to explain, but... It's the kind of news that kills dragons and walks on two feet." noticing his cue, Robin entered the room.

"W-w-wha?! Robin?!" Sumia nearly tripped as she ran forwards, giving the man a hug.

"Father?...FATHER!" Morgan sprinted towards him as fast as Sumia had, and helped her grandmother in crushing Robin's ribs with another hug.

"It's good to...See you both too." Robin wheezed. When he was finally released, he took a deep breath.

"It's been so long!" Sumia sniffed as she stepped back to give Robin some breathing space. Morgan however, stayed attached to Robin.

"It's been too long, Father..." Morgan rested her head in the side of Robin's cloak, using the fabric to dry her eyes. Robin put an arm around her, keeping her close.

"I missed you too, Morgan. I just wanted to say that I... I'm sorry for leaving you and-"everyone's head turned at the sound of a door opening down the hall.

"Good morning Mother, sorry I got up so late. I had to..."Robin froze. His eyes met Lucina's. She was still as beautiful as he remembered, but there was the definite sign of tired eyes and sorrow etched into her face. She was also a bit more hunched over than usual; before she used to stand perfectly upright like the stoic noble she was (or had been). She shakily lowered her hand from the door handle, and the entire room fell silent. Morgan let go of Robin's cloak and stood back, as did everyone else in the room. Robin meekly held up his hand and waved at the princess.

"H-hello, Lucina." he tried to find something, anything to say, but couldn't bring himself to. Without a word, Lucina took a step forwards. Then another. After a few wobbly steps of disbelief, she strode up to Robin.

"You...You're...I..." Robin stayed completely still as she raised her hand and ran it down his face. She did this twice, checking to make sure that she could actually feel him.

"I-I'm so gl-"

 _SMACK_

Lucina had balled her hand into a fist and swung at Robin's face. Everyone in the room tensed up as they heard the unmistakable sound of Robin's jaw popping for a second. Before he could even register what had happened, he found himself on the receiving end of another one of Lucina's punches. He staggered back a little, and with one final elbow to the stomach he toppled to the ground and fell on his back.

"YOU... LEFT ME." Lucina crouched down, stomping on Robin's hand as she went. Robin winced in pain, but didn't bother trying to defend himself as Lucina let out two year's worth of rage on him.

"YOU... LIED TO US! YOU LEFT US WITHOUT A SECOND THOUGHT? WHY, ROBIN? _WHY?!"_ Lucina screamed out each word, making sure each and every word went through Robin's head. She didn't bother holding back anymore, and let tears of rage and joy fall onto the ground as she took out her anger on her husband-to-be. Eventually her punches became nothing more than gentle taps on Robin's shoulder. By now he had a black eye, a couple of chipped teeth, and a definitely broken nose.

"I'm...Sorry. I couldn't let Grima... Hurt you. Not anymore." those were the only words Robin could muster out before Lucina broke down crying. She let herself fall on top of Robin, and buried her face in his chest.

" _I missed you so much..."_ Lucina could barely form any words at all. When she did, they came out muffled by Robin's cloak. He raised his hand that hadn't been crushed by Lucina's boot and ran his fingers through her hair.

"Shh... Don't worry... I'm here for you now." Robin kept his arm around Lucina and allowed her to stay sobbing into his chest for a while.

"Isn't it beautiful, Chrom?" Sumia held hands with the Exalt and looked into his eyes.

"Indeed... Apart from Robin's face. That's going to need a lot of patching up."

"I'll be right on it!... After these two lovebirds get their act together." Lissa a happy sigh escape from her lungs.

" _Robin...Please...Never leave my side ever again."_ Lucina's words bordered on a whine.

"I won't leave you. I promise. And this time, I absolutely mean it. I'm not going anywhere, anytime soon." Lucina lifted her head up to look at Robin's face. Even through the bruises and the crooked nose, he managed to curl his mouth into a grin. Without warning, the princess pulled him into a kiss. Their lips met and they both closed their eyes, holding each other tightly as they lay on the ground. Lucina moaned, deepening the kiss, and Robin returned the favour. After a good few seconds they finally pulled apart. Both of them had red faces and a look of lust in their eyes.

"I suppose that would suffice as proof?" Lucina giggled softly, moving off of Robin to allow him to get up. Everyone else in the room had shuffled awkwardly and had tried glancing in different directions, pretending that the last forty seconds had never happened (especially Chrom, who was desperately trying not to punch a hole in the wall). Robin and Lucina didn't mind one bit, why should they? This was the first romantic moment they had shared together in two years, and Lucina didn't care where they were-she had to show her feelings somehow.

"That was more than enough 'proof...' not that I mind at all." Robin kept his arm wrapped around Lucina and she held onto his side with all of her might.

"Oh, that reminds me! I need to go check on Lucia!" Sumia fumbled over her words and nearly tripped twice as she dashed out of the room. While it was true that she was going to go and check on Lucia, she also wanted to write about the moment in her 'Book of naughty moments, starring the Shepherds.'

"You too are way too lovey-dovey..." Morgan made gagging motions at the happy couple who still had flushed cheeks and a lot of bruises (in Robin's case).

"And in a second one of them is going to be _Badly-Hurty..._ " Chrom growled. Lissa grabbed his hand before he could unsheathe Falchion. Robin froze for a split second, but laughed it off.

"I've only been alive for about an hour now, you wouldn't kill me already, would you?...Would you?" Robin knew that Chrom was still very touchy about the fact that Robin was engaged to his future daughter and was also his best friend.

"Milord, I highly advise you do not kill the tactician..."

"Phew, thanks Frederick! I'm glad you're on my-"

"...YET." Robin's entire body paled. "I've been working on my training regime. We have two years' worth of exercises to make up, Robin! I'll see you tomorrow at five o'clock, sharp." Frederick laughed heartily and exited the room.

"Ohhh...Yes..." Chrom grinned menacingly. "That would be a far better punishment."

"You are NOT going to put Robin through any more torture, Father." she pulled Robin closer towards him and frowned at Chrom, "he's _mine_ now." Robin laughed sheepishly and Chrom scratched the back of his head.

"Eh, sure. But if I find you two doing...THAT ever again before you're married...I will happily parade your head around the entirety of Ylisse." Lucina gasped and unsheathed Falchion.

"I'll never let you do that, Father! You'll have to go through me first!" for a second, Chrom glanced down at his own Falchion for a split second, but his better judgement decided against it.

"I don't think he was being entirely serious, dear." Robin rubbed his head with his hand.

"Oh... Uh... Right." Lucina coughed and awkwardly sheathed her holy blade once again.

"Now stand still, Robin! I need to fix your face!" Lissa approached him with a staff. Lucina instinctively tensed herself, but a reassuring hand squeeze from Robin calmed her down a bit.

"That feels better..." Robin sighed as his wounds closed up. His nose snapped back into place with a faint pop, and Lissa moved back to admire her handiwork.

"There, as good as new... Almost." she lowered her staff and looked over at the kitchen. "I could go with a bite to eat. Anyone know where Frederick went? I'm going to get him to make us all some food." she walked off before anyone could reply, yelling Frederick's name all the way.

"Say, Father? How's about when you and Mother have stopped with all the kissing and cuddling and gooey stuff, could you teach me some more tactics?" Morgan gave her Father a puppy-eyed look.

"Sorry Morgan, not gonna happen any time soon." Lucina interjected as Robin opened his mouth to speak.

"Aww..." Morgan huffed, pulling a tome out of her pocket. "I really wanted to test this tome out, too." Robin looked terrified when he saw what tome it was.

"Morgan?! Where did you find that tome?"

"This old thing? I found it on the side of the road when the Shepherds were marching back from Origin Peak. Why, is it powerful?"

"That tome is Forblaze, one of the most formidable tomes in existence. It was made specifically to eliminate dragons during an ancient war. Even one use of that spell could level a small settlement." Morgan's eyes grew with devilish wonder as she imagined the things she could do with it.

"So, what happens if, say, _somebody_ wouldn't teach some new tactics to me? What if it just happened to go off in this very room, at this exact moment?" Robin let out a sigh of defeat.

"Fine, fine... I'll teach some new strategies tonight..."

"Yay! Thanks Father! You're the best!" Morgan sped off to dig out her old books on war strategy. Chrom let out a quiet laugh.

"Things will be back to normal soon after all..."

 **A/N: I hope you brought an empty pillow case, because I'm gonna somewhere to put all this fluff. And yes, I suck at writing romantic scenes, but this is a learning experience! I'll get better, I swear!**

 **Also, thanks reviewer! I've got a lot of chapters already written up in full, but I'll definitely take your ideas into consideration in a later chapter!**


	3. Chapter 2: A Day Off

**Strap yourselves in, folks. This one's a long one. It also has a flashback in it, but it does have other dialogue as well so I'm going to count it as a regular chapter.**

"I'll move my cavalry straight through the ravine backed by mages to stop any aerial attacks." Morgan slid her pieces across the board.

"Hmm... Then I'll send in some assassins and archers across from the sides of the ravine, up top. They can easily take out your mages from there, which then allows me to make a push towards your side... And kill your leader." Robin effortlessly slid his pieces back across the board.

"Argh, no! I was so close!" Morgan grabbed her hair with her hands and sat back.

"You were close, but make sure that you always account for all directions-even up or down, _especially_ in a ravine. The protection of the two giant walls may seem enticing at first, but ignore the upper paths and the enemy could sail right over you before you have any time to react." Robin spoke as if he was recounting a memory, and Morgan listened intently. They had spent the last few hours going over strategies in dynamic environments such as ravines, caves, mountains and in the woodlands. Morgan had steadily been making progress but every time she came close to winning, Robin would pull the rug out from under her and go on to win. It had been a couple of days since he had returned, and word had spread like wildfire. The Shepherds had flocked in to say their greetings, and they were all beginning to regroup at the base camp village that they had all built up.

"I'll never make progress like this." Morgan huffed and laid her head down on the table.

"You've nearly beat me every time in the last few rounds, Morgan. Chin up! You'll be as great, if not greater than me one day!" Robin gave her a pat on the back as he put away the pieces and folded up the board. Morgan yawned.

"Remind me tomorrow to ask Mother for some sword training." she got up off the table and stretched her arms. She was still trying to get back to her full energetic self, much to Robin's slight dismay (considering she had those dangerous tomes of hers, he dreaded to think about what antics she would get into). Despite her supposed "drowsiness" she would always have enough energy to sprint around the castle grounds several times before getting remotely tired-as she had proven on multiple occasions. At best she slept for seven hours, and never any more than that.

"I think we could both use some rest after those strategies. By the way, have you still got my third volume on naval warfare? I've been meaning to finish reading that." Morgan gave her father a look of guilt and felt around in her left pocket.

"Well, I did, but I kinda... Sorta...Used it as a training dummy one time?" Robin rolled his eyes and tapped his head against the wall.

"How does somebody even use a book as a... Never mind. It probably goes on some rant about water proof ballistae after chapter seven."

"Actually it only talks about those ballistae for chapter eight and chapter eight only. The rest of the book was about formations and the proper use of fire spells while on a boat, if I can remember correctly."

"Seriously?! Damn, I really should have read that while I had the chance."

"Watch your language, Father. You wouldn't want me picking up any bad words now, would you?" Morgan grinned cheekily at Robin, who held up his hands in defeat.

"Grr...Sure. I should try taking a page out of your book and be optimistic for once. But that can wait for now." Robin ruffled Morgan's hair as he exited her room.

"Goodnight sweetie. Enjoy your sword training tomorrow."

Thanks dad, I will! And please never call me 'sweetie' again." Robin laughed as he walked away.

Robin never changed clothes at night. He would take off his Plegian cloak, fold it up and drape it over the foot of his bed and then he would fall asleep. When he entered his room, it was completely spotless which was strange to him. Lucina would usually be in there sitting on the bed, but everything was untouched.

" _Huh. Weird. I guess Lucina is still talking with her parents then_." this was the first time in a while that Lucina hadn't been around Robin (at most she was an arm's length away from him at all times), because Chrom and Sumia had asked her to talk with them. " _I'd better get ready for some well-needed sleep."_ in less than a minute he was already under the sheets, lying on his right side. He took the time he alone had to think. " _Heh, I remember the day when Chrom found out about... This."_ He glanced around the room and looked at all of his and Lucina's bits and pieces that were strewn about _. "That was a laugh. Not at the time, but now it's one of my favourite memories..."_

* * *

"Are you sure? Absolutely sure that I'm not going to die?"

"It'll be fine! Just try not to mention anything... Suggestive and I doubt he'll lay a finger on you!" Robin was incredibly pale that day. Chrom had grown suspicious about all the glances and talking that he caught his tactician and future daughter doing. He had asked for Robin (and only Robin) to meet him in his office to have a 'little chat.'

"I dunno... He's probably going to kill me regardless." Lucina gripped his hand and gave him a quick hug for luck. "I'll be talking with Mother just down the hall. If he does brandish Falchion, run down here and I'll try to help you...Not die." Lucina smiled warmly at the man.

"Ok, I'll do that." Robin gulped and nervously went towards the door to Chrom's office.

"Good luck, dear." Lucina let go of his hand, gave him a worried look and then wandered down the hallway.

"I can do this... I can do this... I can... DO this..." Robin rapped his knuckles on the oak wood door in front of him.

"Ah, Robin? Come on in." Robin silently opened the door, and found Chrom sitting at his desk.

"H-hi, Chrom." Robin spoke meekly. Without looking up at all, Chrom moved a few stacks of paper off of his desk and into an open cupboard.

"Come, sit down! Let's **talk**." the emphasis he put on that last word made the hair on Robin's head stand up. Contrary to his hair, he sat down in the wicker chair opposite Chrom.

"Now, I've been noticing you've been talking to Lucina a lot more recently. You've also been looking at her more, as well. You two have also been in...very close proximity of each other. Care to explain?" Chrom's eyes bore silent daggers into Robin's.

"W-well, there is a perfectly good reason for this." Robin stuttered to find the right words to say. Chrom got up, moved past Robin and locked the door behind them with a large metal latch.

"Oh no, oh no oh no oh gods oh no..." Robin felt beads of sweat pool on his forehead as Chrom sat back down.

"Go on. Explain." Chrom spoke with so little emotion he could have passed off as a talking statue.

"Uh... Well... Y-you see... Ever since, um... She joined the Shepherds at Carrion Isle, w-we started talking, and we became friends." as Robin explained Chrom simply stared at him with a blank expression, nodding occasionally. "and as we landed on the Valmese shores, we started to get along a bit better and... Oh gods, I might as well just say it. Chrom? I am in love with your future daughter." he went bright red and flicked his brown eyes downwards at the ground.

"I see. I had my suspicions, but that confirms them." Chrom put a hand on Falchion's hilt, ready to draw it. Robin noted this action and began to panic.

"I'm s-s-s-sorry, Chrom! I never meant for this to happen, but I-"

"Tell me what you see in her." Chrom's voice still had no hint of emotion in it. At all.

"Ah, well, ok, where to begin..." Robin looked around the room, searching for anything to say to stop Chrom's inevitable wrath. "She's... Pretty. Very much so, in fact. And she's friendly, too. Oh, and a great fighter, and really kind, and her smile, oh gods her smile... Have I mentioned how beautiful she is yet?" Chrom nodded, and his stoic expression became slightly softer.

"So, do you really love her?"

"Absolutely. I would follow her to the ends of the Earth to make sure she's safe. I would think over an entire strategy dedicated to stopping her getting hurt. Knowing that I can see her face every day is one of the reasons I get up in the morning. I would die for her, Chrom." Robin's face was completely red and had several beads of sweat dripping down it. After a few seconds, Chrom's expression changed into the slightest of smiles.

"All right, you sound genuine." Robin felt a wave of relief wash over him, "I can tell that you are devoted to your...noble pursuits." Robin shuddered, "and I'm happy for you both. I really am, even if it doesn't seem like it. You are my best friend, Robin, and I know that you will look after her. However-you are my best friend, and so I will have to put some rules into place to make sure you don't try and use your position to get away with something." Robin slowly nodded, half in relief, hand in dread. "Rule number one: Hugs or hand-holding. That's the limit. No kissing, especially in front of the other Shepherds." Robin moved his mouth to protest but Chrom immediately went on. "Rule number two: No tent sharing. You will be in separate tents at night. If I ever catch you two in the same tent...Well, you can already tell where that goes. Rule number three: Following up from the last rule, none of THAT until you are married. Fornication is off-limits for all Shepherds, we can't have babies running around during the middle of a war. Rule number four: Speaking of your wedding, you're having a big one whether you like it or not. You are getting married to royalty, when the time comes anyway. Finally, rule number five: Hurt my daughter and I. Will. Fucking. Kill. You." Robin's entire body froze at that last sentence. The only other time he had seen Chrom that stern was the day after Emmeryn and the ground had made contact.

"I... Understand. T-thank you Chrom. I was expecting you to... Behead me or something." Robin chuckled awkwardly and twiddled his thumbs.

"If I had caught you two during something? Definitely. I'm only really angry at you for not telling me outright. If I'd have known sooner, then maybe my rules wouldn't have been so strict." Robin sighed.

"I'm sorry, but she is your daughter after all. And what would the other Shepherds think if they saw-"

"I'm pretty sure most of them caught on already. I asked around this morning, and from what I've heard almost everyone had seen you two talking more." Robin mentally kicked himself.

"Was it really that obvious?"

"Apparently so." Chrom got up, and unlatched the door.

"You are free to go now, Robin. Oh, and tonight I'm making sure everyone is aware about this. Especially about the rules." Robin held his hands up in defeat.

"All right, all right... I'll do my best to contain myself around your daughter. Your strong, beautiful dau-"

"Leave. NOW." Robin laughed slowly wandered out of the door and down the hall. The second he left, the door slammed shut with enough force to almost bowl the tactician over from behind. Robin heard the unmistakable sound of Chrom smashing a hole in the wall, and took that as his cue to bolt. He ran into Lucina and Sumia as he turned the corner.

"Oh, hi dear. How did he take the news?" Lucina moved over to Robin and took hold of his hand.

"It went better than I expected. But you see this?" he motioned down towards his hand that Lucina was currently holding, "We can do nothing more 'romantic' than this, otherwise your father's going to murder me."

"Don't worry you two! I'll be sure to try and calm him down before he can hurt you." Sumia giggled lightly.

"Oh, right! Robin? Me and Mother were talking about our relationship."

"I'm guessing it went a lot better than mine talk with Chrom?"

"Yep!" Sumia chimed in, "you two have my full support. As long as you don't hurt my precious girl in any way, I'm fine with the two of you being together. You are a good man, Robin, and I wouldn't trust Lucina with any other guy." Robin scratched the back of his head and blushed slightly at the praise.

"Thanks, Sumia. I need all the help I can get to soften Chrom's wrath."

"Right, I'll leave you two to it! I'll go and have my own little chat with Chrom." Sumia trotted off down the hallway, nearly tripping as she went.

"Ah... We can finally stop being so secretive about things." Robin wiped his forehead with his free arm.

"I just hope everyone else takes it well."  
"Why wouldn't they? They all got hitched themselves."

"Well, I'm pretty sure Inigo has a crush on me, and some of the others like using...Choice words to describe me." Robin suddenly scowled.

"Who would dare say such things? Tell me their names and I'll make sure to give th-" Lucina suddenly burst out laughing.

"Don't worry yourself, Robin. I know I'm not the most likeable person around. I got used to hearing those words ever since I joined the Shepherds." Robin's hold on her hand tightened.

"Lucina, you are the most perfect woman I have ever seen. Don't let those bastards say such things about you." Lucina's face flushed a little and she moved closer to Robin.

"You're being too kind, we all have our flaws."

"Nonsense! In my eyes, you're flawless." by now both of them had bright red faces and were grinning like idiots. They pushed their heads together, and held each other tightly.

"ROBIN!" Chrom shouted from his office. Robin suddenly sprang backwards, looking around in fear.

"Whoops. Hehe."

Later that evening, all the Shepherds were sitting round the large table in the mess tent, tearing into meat and vegetables of all kinds. Robin and Lucina were sitting on Chrom's right side, next to Cynthia and Owain (Sumia and Lissa were on Chrom's left). Without warning, Chrom suddenly spoke up.

"Now that we're all here, I'd like to... Share some information with you all." the room fell silent, and Chrom stared at Robin for a couple of seconds. All of the Shepherds gave Chrom a confused look, looking over at Robin. Underneath the table, Lucina held his hand and gave him a reassuring glance.

"Now, as you may have known, a lot of us in the Shepherds are getting into relationships. I've made you all well aware of where the boundaries are," the Shepherds all agreed, still wondering where this was going, "and I'm sure you all know how I felt when I found out Lissa and Vaike were engaged." Vaike smirked and leaned back in his chair. Lissa frowned at her brother. "Well, you've probably all noticed by now, but a certain person in this room is going to get the same treatment as Vaike did for the next few weeks." Chrom once again glanced at Robin quickly for a moment, but slow enough for some of the other Shepherds to notice. Lucina was looking away from Chrom as he spoke, and Robin was staring at the table. A few of the Shepherds started connecting the dots. Vaike burst out laughing, Cynthia squealed, Tharja died a little on the inside, Inigo felt his dreams crack a little bit, and Stahl grinned.

"Yes, I'm pretty sure you all know what I'm talking about already. Yes, I am deliberately prolonging this to embarrass a certain person. Yes, that person is Robin." Chrom's icy delivery of those sentences made the tactician in question cringe.

"Ha! Well done Robin!" Vaike cheered from across the room.

"Robin of all people?! To who?" Olivia and Maribelle both expressed genuine concern as to who could ever put up with his snarky wit and relentless babbling about tactics. Lucina smiled sheepishly and avoided making eye contact with anyone else.

There was a moment of realisation between everyone, and all at once there was a lot of cheering with a few cries of concern mixed in.

"No. Way." For once in his life, Gerome took off his mask in utter shock.

"Eeeeee! Big sis is finally doing womanly things!" Cynthia jumped up and down in her chair.

"Gregor was of the seeing it from their first times talking!" Gregor gave Robin a double thumbs up from across the room.

"You got a very nice catch there, good friend." Virion sipped from his cup of tea and sat back to watch everything unfold. With a lot of reluctance furious strength, Chrom gave Robin a pat on the back.

"Con-gratulations, Ro-bin." The pitch of Chrom's words changed as he spoke, ranging from a growl to a slightly higher-than-usual-tone.

"Heh... This is really awkward!" Robin muttered under his breath.

"Now then." Chrom began speaking again, and the room fell into silence once more. "Robin and Lucina kept this a secret from me for a very long time. Since our encounters with the Risen at Carrion Isle, in fact!" this raised a few eyebrows in the room. "So, Robin is going to feel those consequences. He already knows what I'm about to say. I'm putting some rules in place for him." Robin sighed and slumped in his chair. "If any of you happen to see him breaking any of these rules, report back to me so I can prepare him for his immediate castration." Robin's eyes widened and the rest of the room laughed quietly. "Rule number one: Anything more than holding hands is banned. If you two are found getting it on behind a crate or something, my fury will be worse than Grima's. Rule number two: You will be in separate tents at all times..." Robin tuned Chrom's voice out of his head and stared at Lucina. She was sitting with a flushed look on her face, certainly out of embarrassment. Looking at her now, Robin felt his heart rate skyrocket. Underneath the table, he shook her hand gently to get her attention. She looked up at him, and her frown softened. She gave him a small smile, and Robin's heart started beating so fast he thought it would explode. They both moved a little closer. Lucina put her other hand on Robin's leg, and looked at him with a look of longing. That's when they decided that the time was right, and they should risk it.

"Bollocks to Chrom's rules," Robin thought to himself, "I'm sure there's a staff for healing that kind of thing." and without another word, Robin and Lucina kissed. Chrom was still going through his list of rules, when the Shepherds suddenly looked to his right and cheered again. It took Chrom a couple of seconds to process what was happening, and when he did he tried to roar in anger but could only manage a tiny yelp. The duo pushed some plates out of the way and rolled onto the table, doing the "tongue dance" as Nowi so eloquently put it. Some of the Shepherds looked away in disgust, but the majority were whooping and laughing. Lissa fainted. Sumia's nose flooded, but she was furious. After a few seconds of this, they finally broke apart.

"That was amazing." Robin gasped for air and slid off of the table.

"I could say the same to you." Lucina sat across Robin's legs and slung an arm around his shoulder.

"H...HN...HNNNN..." Robin suddenly went as white as a sheet and slowly craned his neck to the side. Lucina suddenly gasped and jumped off of his lap. The rest of the room had backed away.

"ROOOOBIIIINNNNN?" Chrom's eyes were almost literally on fire. Some even saw steam coming out of his ears.

"Yeeeeeessss?" Robin shrunk so far back into his seat only his eyes were visible from his cloak.

"WHAAAT DID I JUSSSSTTT SSAAAYYY?" Chrom placed a hand on Falchion's hilt with such force the metal would have cracked, had it not been invincible.

"...Not to kiss your daughter...?" Robin murmured and he scuttled backwards away from Chrom who had now unsheathed Falchion and was jabbing his face with its pointed end.

" **YOU'RE. DEAD. ROBIN."** Robin wasted no time, launching himself across the room and flying out of the flap to the huge tent. Chrom became a blur of imminent death and was gone in an instant. Lucina slunk away in mortification, trying to desperately hide herself behind Owain. The rest of the room broke out into laughter (and in some cases grunts of abhorrence).

"Damn Lucina, you work fast!" Inigo gave her a gentle punch on the shoulder.

"At this rate the mighty Robinspawn shall appear within the next nine months or so!" Owain wiped a tear of laughter from his face.

"Robin is dirty, foul beast! If he makes it back here alive I shall teach him a sincere lesson!" Maribelle huffed and crossed her arms.

"Nyahahaha! Robin's gonna make such great worm food!" Henry was grinning like a madman. Sumia was furiously scribbling in a notebook, wiping her nose with her sleeve.

Robin had run a good couple of miles away from camp, and was still going. He could hear Chrom's footsteps thundering behind him, and they were making ground. Luckily he had an Elwind tome on hand, and was using it to propel himself further and further away.

"Oh gods... Oh gods please let me outrun him..." Robin was losing his breath-he was never made for strenuous physical exercise. He saw a silhouette in the moonlight above him in the shape of a Pegasus.

"Oh thank Naga... Someone is here to-AGH!" Robin leapt out of the way as a spear embedded itself in the ground where he had just been.

"OH NO... SUMIA?!" Robin cried out and made desperate zigzagging motions to try and shake his pursuers. By now the bright lights of camp were just a few distant specks, and Robin's legs were in agony.

"I have never regretted anything in my life as much as this..." Robin glanced backwards and saw Chrom hop onto Sumia's Pegasus. He whimpered and used another blast of Elwind to try and gain ground.

"Oh gods... I hope Robin is ok..." Lucina was sprinting as fast as she could in the direction where Chrom had run off. Owain, Inigo and Kjelle were all with her, to back her up (make sure that Robin would survive until night was over).

"He will be fine, dear cousin! Never before have I seen a man with such burning passion and fleeing ability!" this got Owain a punch to the arm from Kjelle.

"Be quiet, you. That was might impressive back there, if anything Robin will be fighting him one on one and winning." Kjelle tried to give her friend some encouragement but this just made Lucina more worried.

"If he's as good at running as he is at crushing dreams, then we may stand a chance!" Inigo swerved to avoid Kjelle punching him, too.

"Hey! I think there's a Pegasus up there! That must be Sumia's. We're close!" Kjelle used a burst of energy to run forwards and the others followed suit.

"Pleasepleasepleaseplease let there be a cave or something up ahead..." Robin was in complete blind panic mode at this point. His left arm had a colossal gash in it from where the pointed end of a spear had ripped through it, and he really didn't want to feel the combined rage of both the Exalt and the queen. Chrom and Sumia were both still close behind, storming with rage.

"That's funny...Why does the grass smell of the se-"with a sudden scream of shock, Robin dropped downwards without warning. Chrom and Sumia's Pegasus skidded to a halt as all three of them looked down, hearing a large splash.

"...Shit. A cliff." Chrom fumed, getting off of the Pegasus and kicking the ground out of anger. "DAMN YOU ROBIN!"

"FATHER! STOP!" Lucina and her friends were all dripping with sweat and panting from exhaustion. They had finally caught up... But they couldn't slow down in time. With a simultaneous cry, they all toppled over the edge of the cliff.

"Oh gods NO!" Sumia feebly held out a hand, but was incredibly far off the mark. Chrom was still seething with rage, but he suddenly looked down and met eyes with Sumia. At once he felt a colossal urge of guilt at the situation. He picked up Sumia's spear and threw it downwards, listening to the sound.

"Hmm... I don't think that it's a fatally high distance..." Chrom mused to himself.

"Don't get any bright ideas, deary. We can deal with them tomorrow."

"Couldn't we use your pegasus to go and get them?"

"We could... But they could use the bonding time down there. It's only overnight. We can send Nowi to go get them tomorrow." Sumia grinned devilishly. "If only it was just Robin and Lucina... I could have grandchildren already!"

"For the love of Naga, please never say that again."

* * *

"Ngh... My head..." Morning had arrived. Lucina opened her eyes, and found herself lying on a bed of sand. She slowly dragged herself to her feet, and looked around in horror. Behind her was a wall of rock, and to either side there was barely a few feet of sand before large jagged boulders cut her off from any other body of land. Luckily for them all, the cliff hadn't been too high. They happened to land when it was high tide however, so they wouldn't have seen the rocks at the bottom. It was a miracle that none of them had died

"Oh gods! What happened?" Lucina saw Owain and Kjelle huddled together, both with visible bruises on their body. Inigo and Robin were both unconscious on the ground.

"Turns out...There was a cliff...Couldn't see it... Too dark..."Owain was clearly exhausted if he was unable to do his usually theatrics. Lucina slowly nodded, then glanced back over to where Inigo and Robin were lying.

"Sweet merciful Naga...It's cold..." Inigo mumbled, shakily pushing himself up.

"Inigo! Are you hurt?" Lucina rushed over to him and place a hand on his back. He coughed, and got slowly got to his feet.

"I'm good... I guess something bad happened then." he looked around.

"I think my arm is dislocated, but apart from that I'm fine." Kjelle spoke up. Her left arm was noticeably more separate from her shoulder than it should have been.

"I'm good, a bit cold though." Owain said quietly.

"Good to hear. My head hurts a lot though," Lucina wiped her head with her hand a faint smear of blood presented itself on her glove "I think I've cut a small cut on my head but apart from that I'm fine." All four of them looked over at Robin. His cloak was drenched with water and there was blood on the sand from his arm.

"Robin?!" Lucina screamed and rolled him over onto his back.

"Oh gods... That arm wound is nasty." Inigo winced. Robin's right leg was also bent at an unnatural angle.

"Robin, please wake up..." Lucina struggled to stop herself from crying. Kjelle walked forwards and gingerly felt Robin's hand for a pulse.

"I think... He might be alive. Definitely not in good shape. We should focus on getting that arm patched up first." Owain dashed forwards and ripped off his yellow coat, wrapping it around Robin's arm.

"Don't worry, my coat of shielding shall be our saviour!" Owain smiled at his handiwork.

"That should stop the bleeding for a bit. It's definitely infected by now, though. We need to get out of here. There is just one more problem: what do we do about that?" Kjelle looked down at his leg, which was clearly broken.

"We have to make a splint somehow. Then we-"Inigo was interrupted by Robin's sudden spasms and spluttering. The tactician twitched and jerkily opened his eyes.

"OH GODS CHROM PLEASE DON'T KILL...Lucina?! What are you-AGH!" Robin attempted to get up but his leg said otherwise. Lucina gripped him gently, holding him in place and stopping him from moving.

"Thank Naga you're alive... We went to rescue you from Father," Lucina motioned to her friends, "but we all...Fell off a cliff."

"Ohh... Wait, what?! Why?! What if any of you had died? That would have been horrible!" the others all looked away guiltily.

"We weren't going to sit back and let Chrom murder you!" Lucina held Robin even tighter, "he needs you! You're his tactician!"

"And you're also a devilish young man who has no qualms about being frisky with people right in front of him!" Owain smirked, relieved the one of the few people who listened to him was still living.

"Hey, I couldn't myself alright?" Robin looked down at his leg. "Oh. Crap. That's not good, is it?" the others shook their heads.

"I'll take a quick peek around and see if there's anything we could use as a splint." when he wasn't chatting up women Inigo was surprisingly resourceful-he had spent a lot of time applying bandages and giving vulneraries to his friends in the future.

"I did use my left eye of spying to check for any helpful branches, but alas! The eye of spying found nothing." Owain looked over his shoulders and took another quick peek at the expanse of beach behind him.

"If the rocks weren't so round, we could try using one of those." Inigo sifted through the sand to find anything he could use, to no avail.

"I did have an Elwind tome on me..." Robin felt around in his pocket, "ah! There it is..." he pulled the tome out. It was soggy and all the pages were ruined, but it was still in one piece.

"I don't think that one tome alone would work, it's too small." Kjelle studied the tome from afar until something in her brain clicked.

"What if we rip it in two and use the covers? The pages could make improvised bandages." the others looked at each other uncertainly.

"It's worth a shot at the very least." Inigo yanked the tome out of Robin's hand and immediately grabbed hold of both covers. With a slight grunt of effort, he ripped the book in half. Pages fell to the ground and the young mercenary bent down to steady the covers against Robin's leg.

"I spent three hundred Gold on that tome..." Robin grumbled. Tomes weren't the cheapest things around (especially the more powerful ones) so Robin always tried to be conservative when he bought them, as he wanted to have a little stockpile of money saved up.

"This might hurt a liiitttlllle bit. Lucina, I need you to hold these covers in place." Lucina let go of Robin and nodded, ready to help. Inigo put a hand gently on Robin's leg.

"Oh gods." Robin slackened his cloak on his arm, and bit into the cloth. He knew what was about to happen. Inigo suddenly yanked on his leg to straighten it out. Robin let out a muffled scream of pain. After his leg was straightened out, Lucina held the two tome covers firmly on either side of the injured appendage. Inigo picked up as many pages of the tome as he could, and started wrapping them around the leg.

"Crap, the pages are too wet. I don't think they'll stay put." Inigo put a hand on his chin and inspected the splint. They had been successful, but only just, and a few of the pages were beginning to split from the strain. Robin had beads of sweat dripping down his face. He tried to keep himself held together, and was still biting into the arm of his cloak.

"We could use his cloak." Kjelle piped up.

"We could, but that's currently stopping him from bleeding to death." Lucina reminded her friend, pointing to Owain's coat that was looped around Robin's other arm.

"How about we try and make a majestic signal fire! One that screams 'HELP US PLEASE' into the sky!" Owain made a triumphant pose, looking off to the side. The others just stared at him, blankly.

"Well, our only source of fire is too wet and is currently around my shin." Robin shrugged. Owain let out a sigh of defeat and sat back down.

"Maybe we'll just have to sit here and wait." Lucina decided to lie down on the grass. Owain and Kjelle shivered a little. It hadn't occurred to them how cold it was down by the sea front until they had nothing to say.

"That sounds like a plan to me." Inigo's teeth chattered.

"We might want to stay close. We're all thoroughly soaked through and through. There's still the chance of us freezing to death." Kjelle sat down by the tactician and the princess. Inigo followed suit, and so did Owain.

"Group huddle, then?"

"Yep. Group huddle." They all moved closer together. They lay on the ground like sleeping seals, but much more bloody (and not as large). At some point, they had all drifted off to sleep.

"...Down there! I swear it's them!" Owain's eyes slowly opened at the sound. He suddenly sat bolt upright, looking around. Kjelle and Inigo were both next to him, their heads resting against his legs. Robin and Lucina were in turn both next to Kjelle, and all four of them were asleep. Owain looked up and saw a large green shape in the sky.

"HEEEYY! OWAIN!" The shape flapped its wings and landed on the ground with a gentle thud. The sudden breeze caused the others to stir, and they slowly all woke up.

"Are you lot ok?! Thank goodness I found you!" the green Manakete gave a sigh of relief, and transformed back into her less-dragon-like form.

"Greetings, Nah! We all took a mighty tumble off of that there cliff face and landed on this shore of saving, a beach of bruises-"

"Are you hurt? Any injuries?"

"I'm alright, just a bit sore." Owain patted himself on the chest and smiled merrily.

"My arm is probably dislocated, Robin's got a broken leg and a cut arm, and Lucina has a pretty nasty head wound." Kjelle spoke tiredly. She tried moving her arm, but winced a little when it sent a sudden shock of pain up her body.

"Gods... Ok, ok... Stay here! I know that mum's on her way here and she can help me get you all out! I think Gerome might be on the way too!" Nah looked at the top of the cliff face impatiently. "NOWI! ARE YOU THERE?" she suddenly shouted, causing the others to jump.

"NAH? DID YOU FIND THEM?" Nowi shouted back, approaching the steep ledge that towered above the unlucky group.

"YEP! NOW GET DOWN HERE AND HELP ME OUT!" Nah tapped the ground with her foot. Nowi leapt over the cliff face and landed behind them.

"My poor ears..." Robin mumbled, shifting around on the sand.

"Kjelle and Robin are in pretty bad shape, so take them first. I'll take Lucina and Owain next."

"Hey! What about me?"

"You can go with Gerome." Nah smirked, assuming her dragon form. With Nowi's help, she placed a very grateful Robin and Kjelle on her back. Nowi then took hold of Owain and Lucina and perched them between her wings, and the two dragons took off as a familiar wyvern and wyvern rider landed on the beach.

"Gods, you fools. Everyone was worried sick bat at camp. I swear, I'm never going to let Robin hear the end of this." Gerome growled and slung Inigo onto Minerva's back. Without another word, he shot off into the air. After meeting quickly with the Shepherds to confirm that they were ok, all five of the unfortunate warriors were rushed off to the infirmary tent. Lissa had been so relieved when they had shown up alright, and after giving Owain a lot of yelling and scolding, had propped them all up in beds to start taking care of them.

"Right, a staff can fix the cut wounds," she chucked a wooden staff to Maribelle (who had shown up to help Lissa out and to give Robin a chewing out), and the noble immediately used it to heal Lucina's forehead. The princess' wound was a fair bit worse than she made it out to be, and it spread across the entirety of the right side of her temple.

"You poor, poor darlings." Maribelle muttered, looking around at the sorry lot who were all full of guilt. "Except for you, Robin. I have a bone to pick with you."

"I gathered that after I saw the look you gave me last night." Robin chuckled.

"That was not the time nor the place for any of that, especially after Chrom told you-"

"Yeah yeah, I know, kinda trying not to yell in agony from my leg here." Maribelle was tempted to give him a good punch but a sudden cough from Inigo caused her to wheel around to check on the young man.

"Are you alright?"

"I should be, probably gonna have a cold after all this." Inigo had been the least hurt mainly because he had used the others to cushion the blow as they fell. He did feel ashamed of that, but after what Robin had done with Lucina the previous evening he did feel a little bit justified.

"Right, Kjelle... That's your name, yah?" Kjelle nodded. The future children didn't really socialise outside of their families so a few of the Shepherds didn't even know their names fully.

"This might hurt a little bit. Going to have to pop your shoulder back into place." Kjelle braced herself as Lissa grabbed hold of her arm. With one strong shunt and a very satisfying snapping noise, Kjelle's arm shifted back into its socket. The woman winced and growled a little at the pain, but managed to get over it very quickly.

"Now, don't use that arm too much for the rest of the day, and it should be fine soon!" Lissa smiled.

"Thanks, ma'am. I appreciate your help." Lissa stopped for a second but moved away to check on Owain.

"I'm going to ignore that ma'am part... How are you doing, honey?" Lissa patted her son on the shoulder gently.

"I am fine, illustrious mother! I am free of major injuries and am almost completely unscathed!" Lissa smirked at his antics and handed him a vulnerary.

"Sure, sure. Take this. And, if I ever see you do something so reckless again, I will be forced to seal you in your tent." Lissa gave Owain a motherly cuddle (mainly to stop him from protesting) and then turned finally to Robin. Maribelle had finished removing the makeshift splint from his leg (it had fallen apart mostly by itself, but Robin was still appreciative of Inigo's efforts).

"Hello...Robin." her tone became lot darker.

"I can already tell where this is going." Robin sighed and waited for the unceasing nagging that was about to happen.

"I can't really say I approve of what you did to my niece last night." Lissa glared daggers at him for a second.

"Aunt Lissa, please. It wasn't entirely his faul-"

"You are a very trusted man in this army, Robin. You should have known better." Lissa ignored Lucina's remarks and kept talking. Everyone else in the room shuffled awkwardly, staying silent.

"I couldn't help myself, alright? Now when I was confronted with that pretty face." Lucina blushed and Robin smiled a little.

"You're pushing it now, Robin. I have half a mind to throw you back over that cliff."

"No! Please Lissa, stop saying such things!" Lucina sat upright in her bed trying to get the woman's attention.

"That's Aunt Lissa, to you! Anyway, I only have half a mind to do so. I know you'll take care of her, but if you don't...I imagine Chrom has already told you."Robin gave her a tired look and sunk a bit further back into his bed.

"Ok Mother, that's enough now." Owain spoke up and Lissa glanced over at him. Reluctantly, she moved away from Robin, dropping an elixir on the end of his bed.

"You'll need that for your leg. Now, as long as everyone's alright, I'm going to go and get you all some food." Lissa exited the tent and Maribelle followed behind her, quickly shooting a dastardly look at Robin.

"This is fun." Robin spoke to the ceiling "now everyone in camp is going to make me out to be a pervert."

"I second that." Inigo spoke up, earning a disapproving look from his friends.

"If you think you've got it bad now... Wait until Chrom and Gerome get here." Kjelle smirked and closed her eyes, ready to sleep.

"I'll try and back you up, mighty love connoisseur Robin, but I can't promise that you'll be unharmed by the time they leave." Owain cracked a worried grin and Robin groaned, moving around under his sheets.

"Don't worry, dear. I'm sure he'll have calmed down by now." Lucina fell back into her bed. She knew that Chrom would be giving her a good shouting at as well as Robin and she was thinking of things to say when the time came.

"Hopefully my other leg doesn't get broken. That would suck." Robin heard the unmistakable sound of heavy, angry footsteps approaching. "Oh gods... It's showtime."

* * *

Robin laughed quietly to himself. He distinctly remembered the argument that had ensued-Owain and Lucina were trying to give him support as Chrom and Gerome unleashed their verbal rage on the poor blighter. Kjelle and Inigo had kept quiet through the whole thing, and were both genuinely shocked at the fact Lucina, Robin and Chrom all knew such nasty words. They had heard that Olivia fainted while walking past the tent because of the incredibly coarse language that was being thrown about. It had ended with Owain jumping out of the bed to stop Chrom punching Robin, and Gerome was being wrestled to the ground by Inigo to stop him from stopping Owain who was stopping Chrom. Ever since that day, Robin and Lucina had never done anything so reckless in front of the Shepherds. Robin still had a scar from his arm from where Sumia's spear had shredded the skin on it.

"Already in bed, I see?" Robin turned at the sound of Lucina's voice.

"And where have you been all evening?" Lucina giggled as she slipped into the bed next to him.

"Wellllll... Mother and I had to decide on a day to go dress shopping." Robin froze for a second. He knew that Lucina didn't have the... _best_ fashion sense, and dreaded to think what she would end up wearing.

"That's... _Lovely."_ Robin put on a fake smile and did as best he could to not scream from the horrifying mental images he had.

"I know! I've never put on a wedding dress before!" Lucina squealed, holding her hands to her chest.

" _WAIT. WHAT."_ Robin's mind started to fizzle. "Huuuhhhh?" was all he could manage to say.

"Don't tell me you've forgotten, silly!" Lucina held up her hand and pointed to the small, gold wedding band that was on her finger. After Robin 'died' she had stopped wearing it, but over that last few days she had remembered to put it back on.

"Ohhhhh! Of course!" Robin slapped his head with his hand. "I think I was too busy being...Dead to remember that." Lucina scowled at him.

"Wait, seriously? You forgot that we were going to get _married_ after the war ended?!" Lucina pouted and faced away from a very guilty looking Robin.

"Hey, I'm sorry! I'll make it up to you!" Robin's words fell on deaf ears. "I'm going to be sleeping in the hall tonight, aren't I?"

Robin took the silence as a profound "yes," and got out of the bed. "Well, goodnight. Don't get too lonely in here without me, haha!..." Robin did a fake laugh that trailed off as he left the room and closed the door.

" _I love you Robin, but sometimes I want to kick you in the stones."_ Lucina rolled over in her bed and fell asleep.

 **A/N: This was the longest chapter I have ever written. I hope that it was alright. And yes, the royal's rage is something to be feared. Might give him a spin-off fanfiction one day. I know that the characters in this story are a little different from how they would most likely react to stuff, but you've gotta add your own depth to characters. The more stuff you can do with a character the better!**


	4. Flashback 2: Morgan Emblem: Morganing

**A/N: This flashback chapter recounts a certain trio's first encounter with an energetic little amnesiac...**

"Are you sure this is the place?"

"Yeah, it has to be. These ruins match the location on that map perfectly."

"So we go in, get the tear, and then get back out?"

"Yup. That simple."Robin and Chrom were standing in front of a colossal, bright blue building. It had crumbled and collapsed with time, and had several flowing bodies of water and patches of moss growing within its decrepit walls. The Shepherds had heard of a famous treasure, aptly named 'Naga's Tear' which was said to have strength, stamina and magic boosting properties. Chrom had come to the decision that it was worth their time to look for- if one of the Grimleal got their hands on it, then the effects could be disastrous. The last thing the Shepherds wanted was a super-powered Deadlord hunting them down.

"Father, what are you doing all the way out here with Robin?" Chrom turned around on the spot and saw Lucina standing behind him.

"Robin and I were going to do some recon on the ruins, in case something came up. I think a better question is why are YOU here? You said you were going to get some sleep!" Chrom looked at his daughter accusingly.

"I heard the sound of you walking away, and I got concerned. What if you were ambushed? I couldn't let that happen."

"Sometimes you're too stubborn for you own good, you know that?"

"You should feel glad that she's out to look after you, at the very least."Chrom rolled his eyes at his friend.

"Just because you two are... Together, doesn't mean you have to compliment everything she does."

"If I'm too stubborn, then you're too reckless Father. I promised myself when I arrived here to make sure you were safe, and I intend to keep that promise."

"Hey! What about me? You two get to be things!" Robin pretended to be angry and folded his arms.

"You're too clever for your own good." Chrom retorted, and Robin let out an angry hum.

"...RE...CHILD..." the trio shuddered and turned their heads towards the deep, grumbling noise that came from within the walls.

"Oh gods... We've got company." Robin drew his Levin Sword. "Base camp is too far away to get help... Dammit, we'll just have to go for it." the growling inside the old walls increased.

"Are you sure?! It sounds like there's a lot of Risen in there."

"Risen aren't the best fighters in the world, we can take them." It was late at night when the two of them had decided to scout ahead, and the rest of the Shepherds were all still sleeping. Not only was camp a good distance away from the ruins, but Robin didn't want to wake anyone up. A groggy Shepherd would be putting their life on the line, and the tactician couldn't risk it.

"AIIEEEEE! OH GODS NONONONONO!" Robin could hear someone shouting from within the walls, and suddenly darted forwards, his sword surging with lightning magic. Chrom was right behind him, Falchion at the ready. Lucina jumped for a second at the men's sudden movement, but swiftly followed them.

The temple was filled with Risen; they shambled around occasionally picking at the ground or sniffing the air like a feral beast. Robin fired off a few bolts as he entered the temple, swinging his sword to cut a path through. He heard the sound of an explosion and more screaming. He craned his neck towards the sounds.

"There's someone in here... A magic user by the sounds of it. Coming from... That way." Robin was staring towards a staircase on his right. "Crap. Risen are blocking the path." He ducked and thrust his sword forwards as a Risen swung at him with barbed talons. Lucina finished the Risen off for him, and spun around to fend off any attackers from behind.

"Chrom! You go up there and try and find that person! Me and Lucina will hold off the Risen for you!" the Exalt nodded and swung Falchion, holding back a little as the dynamic duo slaughtered a path through the Risen, allowing him to dash towards the stairs.

"Are you sure it's safe to let him go off by himself?" Lucina asked worriedly while kicking a Risen off the end of her blade.

"I'm pretty sure whoever else is in here will be willing to cooperate at this current point in time." Robin tried to sound reassuring, but his words came out more aggressive than anything as he forced his blade into the hollow eye socket of a Risen mercenary.

"Where the heck is the exit?! It has to be around here some-AAHHH!" the young woman fired off a blast of Arcfire in front of herself as a clammy, purple corpse went to attack.

"WHAT ARE THESE THINGS?! WHY ARE THERE SO MANY?!" the girl screamed, pushing past more and more of the Risen in her fleeting attempts to escape.

"Hey! Someone in here? Don't worry! I'm here to help!" Chrom's voice rang out like a bell over the hollow moans of the once deceased. The girl stopped dead in her tracks, and waved her hand at the vague white and blue figure she saw between the gaps in the Risen.

"HEYY! OVER HERE!" she fired off another blast of Arcfire, and the man easily cleaved through the remains of the Risen in front of him.

"Stay behind me, I've got this." the man swing his blade horizontally, and sliced the remaining Risen in half. The girl had never seen anything quite like it; he moved with such precision and deadly accuracy that the Risen didn't have any time to react. By the time he was done, the room was eerily silent.

"Phew... That was a workout." the man wiped his brow and turned to look at the girl behind him. "Are you...Ok..."? Chrom's voice trailed off as he studied the girl. She was wearing a dark cloak, complete with purple stitching in the shape of markings. There were gold patterns at the base of the cloak, and the hood was currently situated around her neck. She had short but bright blue hair, and deep brown eyes that were currently full of fear. As Chrom looked at her, he realised how similar she was to Robin.

"Tell me... What's your name?"

"My name? It's... Uh... What is my name?!" the girl put a hand to her head in frustration.

"You don't remember your own name?" Chrom cocked his head and the girl shook hers.

"I can't...Really remember anything... What happened?! NGH!... My head..." the girl dropped to her knees and held her head in both hands. Chrom patted her on the shoulder.

"Don't worry, keep calm. I'm sure it'll come to you eventually." after a couple of seconds, the girl suddenly flicked her head up and jumped to her feet.

"Morgan! That's it! My name is Morgan!"She smiled and did a little jump for joy.

"Morgan, eh? It seems finding amnesiacs is my special talent. Well, it's nice to meet you, Morgan." Chrom held out his hand and Morgan shook it vigorously. "My name is Chrom, and I'm the leader of the Shepherds."

"Shepherds? But you're wearing armour?" Morgan looked at him inquisitively.

"I do not mean a Shepherd who tends to sheep, but one who is part of a small army of friends, who travel the world and help out those in need." Morgan nodded, satisfied with the answer.

"Cool! Is that how you're so good with swords and stuff?"

"Maybe... But this sword is special." Chrom unsheathed it and held it in his hands. "It is called Falchion, and is my heirloom from my ancestors before me, who used it to fend off evil in the form of Shadow Dragons and Dark Mages." Morgan looked at the sword with awe.

"Wow... That looks so awesome! Can I touch it? Can I? Can I?!" Chrom saw how budding the girl was, and reluctantly held out Falchion in front of him.

"Ooh... It's so shiny! And it has gold on it! Gold is a great colour!" Morgan prodded the sword gingerly. She pocketed the tome she was holding and ran her now free hand down the blade. "And it's sharp, too! I bet this thing packs a real punch!"

"It does indeed." Chrom smiled and sheathed the sword. "Tell me, that coat of yours... Where did you get it? My good friend Robin has one exactly like it." Morgan's eyes widened.

"Father?! You know Father?!" Chrom's eyes widened, too.

"He's your... Father?"

"Yah! He's all I can remember, but I can totalllyyy remember him! He was the greatest tactician EVER! Is he here? I must see him!" Morgan went to run off, but Chrom grabbed her by the hood and held her in place.

"Now now, he's in here all right, but there are a couple more things I want to know first." Morgan squirmed and tried to wrench herself free of the Exalt's grasp, but couldn't.

"Like what? I must see Father!"

"Have you come from the future?"

* * *

Robin and Lucina were exhausted. They had cleared out the room below, and there was not a Risen in sight. Using some collapsed stones and bricks, they had barricaded the room's other entrances, leaving only the one that went outside free from obstructions in case they needed to escape. On the opposite sides of the blocked pathways, they could hear a few Risen trying to claw their way through.

"Father has been up there for... A while... Is he ok?" Lucina was propped up against a pillar and Robin was sitting on one knee, trying to catch his breath.

"Yeah, I think so. I could just about hear him kill some Risen." Lucina closed her eyes in relief.

"Robin!" Robin turned his head at Chrom's voice. The man in question strode down the hall, and hiding behind him Robin could make out a younger and shorter girl.

"Now, Robin, this might be a bit hard to take in, but-"

"FATHER!" the girl rushed forwards and knocked Robin over with a hug. Lucina looked on in shock, and Robin let out a surprised yelp of confusion.

"Father? Then does that mean-"

"I've missed you so much! Your friend Chrom here told me that I came from the future!" Robin held an arm around the girl and sat up.

"From the future too, eh? Lucina? Do you recognise this girl?" Lucina shook her head.

"No, not at all. Maybe she comes from another timeline."

"Uh, Father? Who is that?" Morgan nervously pointed at Lucina, and the princess' face flushed. She looked away in embarrassment.

"Her? She's Lucina, or as I like to call her, the love of my life." Lucina blushed even harder and if she had turned her head away any more her neck probably would have broke.

"Wait a minute... I remember you..." Morgan stared at Lucina for a while, then she suddenly sat bolt upright.

"...Mother?" Lucina's head snapped back forwards and she looked down at the girl who had taken a couple of worried steps towards her." Lucina looked at Morgan, then back at Robin. Chrom and Robin did the same thing, and suddenly they all made the connection. The blue hair, the Plegian cloak and the brown eyes... Everything fell into place. Lucina took a couple of steps forwards and the two women embraced.

"Mother! I'm so sorry... I couldn't remember anything about you!"

"As far as I'm aware, she has amnesia. I guess she takes after you a lot, huh Robin?" Chrom spoke up. Lucina let out a few tears of joy as she hugged her daughter.

"That doesn't matter to me... You're with us now." Morgan snuggled her face into Lucina's collarbone and the two stayed like that for a while.

"Hold on a minute..." the cogs in Chrom's head began to spin. Robin could see the oh-so-familiar look of realisation in Chrom's eyes, and had begun to shuffle away from him.

"ROBIN." Chrom unsheathed Falchion. "I TOLD YOU HOW I FEEL ABOUT THAT ALREADY."

"Oh gods Chrom, she's from another timeline! I haven't done anything of that nature with Lucina ye- OH GODS PLEASE DON'T DO THIS AGAIN." Chrom had Falchion's tip placed firmly over Robin's chest. "Chrom, your newly-found granddaughter is in the room. Now is not the time to leave such an impression on her." Robin closed his eyes and awaited his death.

"Grand...Daughter?!" Chrom's face paled. He looked over at Morgan...

And fainted.

"Wait, Chrom is my grandpa?" But that makes you his-"

"Yup, I'm his daughter, but also from the future, like you!" Morgan looked up at her mother with awe.

"Wow, that's awesome! Did you come here to meet Father?" Lucina sombrely shook her head.

"Well, I came here to see Father-my father though, not yours. Robin and I falling in love was a... Side effect of that. But one that I have no problems with."

"Wait, why would you need to see grandpa?"

"I'll tell you later." Lucina's voice wavered a little bit, but she managed to steady herself. Robin got up off the floor and dusted himself off.

"I heard the sound of magic before we found you. I'm guessing you can use tomes?"

"Yup! I can use swords, but I'm not very good with them." Lucina looked a little disappointed, but soon rid herself of that expression when some Risen managed to burst through the barricade at the other side of the room.

"Crap, Chrom is still down! Right, I'm gonna need you two to fend off those Risen! I'll protect Chrom!" Lucina and Morgan let go of each other, and assumed battle stances. Lucina unsheathed Falchion and pointed it forwards, ready to attack at a second's notice. In comparison, Morgan casually pulled her Arcfire tome out of her pocket.

"Oh, Robin? Please don't swear in front of our daughter." Robin went to respond, but some Risen had finally destroyed the impromptu barricade. Lucina immediately ran forwards and hacked them into oblivion with a few strikes, before the danger was even apparent to Morgan.

"Wow, you're good with swords!"

"She's one of the fastest there is in the army." Robin smiled and Morgan looked at Lucina's blade with curiosity.

"Wait, that blade looks exactly like Grandpa's!" Lucina had moved back a little to allow the Risen into the room. This allowed her to be less restrictive with her strikes.

"It's a time travel thing, I'll explain later. Now, I think your mother could use a hand?"

"R-right!" Morgan ran forwards and shot a few weak balls of flame at some of the Risen stragglers that were sneaking around the sides. Robin was on guard, and was glancing behind him to check for any danger. Seeing that all was clear, he diverted his attention back to the two women in front of him. They were fighting almost completely in sync, Lucina would slice through one of the writhing corpses and Morgan would finish it off with an Arcfire blast milliseconds afterwards. They never let a single Risen get too close to one another, and eventually the Risen had all been decimated. The duo was worn out, and they sat on the ground for a bit, talking just out of Robin's hearing.

"Ngh... Why me..." Chrom slowly staggered to his feet. Robin put away his Levin sword and gulped, turning to face Chrom.

"You're lucky we were here. Some Risen showed up. Those two took care of it, though." Robin waved at them. Lucina smiled and gave a little wave back, before going back to talking with Morgan.

"I'm twenty years old... And I have grandchildren already." Chrom felt his knees go weak.

"Time travel is both a blessing and a curse." Robin chuckled. "I think the halls are a bit quieter, so it may be safe to go and look for Naga's Tear now." Chrom shakily nodded his head, and the two men walked towards the two women who were laughing about something.

"Are you both ready to go?" they nodded and stood up. The squad of four ducked (or in Morgan's case, kept walking normally) under the ruins of the collapsed blockade.

There had been a few more Risen along the way, but they had been taken out by one of the four before the ragged monsters had even known they were there. The group had managed to make their way into a central chamber that was completely serene compared to the rest of the building. It was nearly untouched, and a fine, green moss was growing on the altar in the centre of the cylindrical room. A path of water flowed around the altar, entering from the left and exiting on the right. That water had a mysterious green reflection to it, one that seemingly held the power of Naga herself.

"I guess this place was too sacred for the Risen to get into." Robin chuckled as he stepped inside.

"This place is spooky. But spooky in the good way, as in 'oooooh! I am a spooookkky energy ghossstttt!'" Morgan grinned to herself. Chrom and Lucina went up to the altar in the middle and looked inside. It was filled with water but it was still fresh as if it had come straight from a spring. In the bottom of the shallow pool was a gold object that gave off a magnificent golden light. Chrom plunged his hand in a pulled it out, holding it carefully.

"So this is Naga's Tear..." Chrom held it away from his face as it shined brightly in the dark room. Just by holding it, he could feel newfound energy surge through his body.

"Is that why you all came here? Cool! What does it do?" Morgan walked up to Chrom and he held it lower down for the girl to see.

"This tear was supposedly shed by Naga during The Scouring that tore through Elibe many years ago. It's incredible to think that it's been lying here for all this time." Robin spoke, and Morgan had a look of huge interest on her face.

"Elibe? Sounds like a scary place. I'm guessing this tear has some kind of magic properties to it?" Robin nodded.

"If the legends are true, then this tear greatly increases a person's physical and magical capabilities. It also grants them more endurance-stamina and defence."

"Wow! This thing must be really rare. It's making my head hurt a little just being near it!" she stepped back a little and Chrom put the tear in his pocket.

"We'll decide who gets to use it later. For now, I think we should get out of here before the Risen notice." everyone else in the room nodded. Chrom strode forwards and took the lead. Morgan towed along behind him, hounding him with questions about his time and Naga's tear.

"Hey, Lucina." hearing her name, the princess turned around. Robin held out his hand. "Care to join me?" the princess giggled and took hold of his hand. They happily walked along behind the other two, letting their linked arms swing between them.

* * *

By now the sun was starting to rise, and it hadn't occurred to any of them how long they had been inside the temple (or how tired they were).

"Oh gods... Morning already?!" Chrom shielded his eyes from the sun. "The Shepherds are going to be so worried..."

"It'll be fine, Father. We can just explain what happened."

"They'll probably be mad that they didn't get to fight with us."

"I have no idea who you three are talking about." this got a laugh out of the older adults.

"Don't worry, Morgan. We'll introduce you." Morgan stopped walking for a second to allow her parents to catch up. As they walked, Robin and Lucina let go of each other, and had started holding hands with Morgan to try and be 'a bit more parent-like.'

"Milord, where have you been? I have been searching all over camp for you!" Frederick met the group outside of the camp where all the tents had been set up. He was clearly in a state of panic, as his armour was caked with mud and he was sweating profusely.

"Sorry, Frederick. Robin and I went to scout out the ruins up ahead, and we got a bit... Distracted, to say the least." Chrom scratched the back of his head.

"Ooh, you look tough. I bet you're like the really strong knight guy!" Morgan said cheerily, looking up at the formidable knight in front of her.

"And who might this be?" Frederick looked at the girl who was holding hands with Robin and Lucina. He stared at them blankly.

"W-well, this is me and Lucina's daughter, Morgan." Robin spoke with a tone of pride. Lucina gave her daughter a pat on the back, and Morgan giggled happily.

"I see... Ah! That makes you a member of royalty. It is my pleasure to serve under you, Milady." Frederick bowed.

"Wait, royalty?! Whaaaaat?!"Morgan looked as if she had just discovered one of the biggest secrets in the universe.

"Well, Father is the current Exalt in this timeline. Being his oldest daughter, that makes me a princess, which in turn makes you a princess!" Lucina beamed.

"You two get to be royalty..." Robin huffed. He didn't know it yet, but in a way he was something that made being a princess pale in comparison (not just in title, but in the amounts of fear he could strike into a person).

"Is there anything I can do for you at all?" Frederick spoke, still bowing.

"I guess I'm really hungry... Go get me some food!... uh, please?" Morgan smiled sheepishly as Lucina scowled slightly at her.

"Right away. We have meat, bread, fruit... You name it, it's most likely in the mess tent."

"I could go for some bear meat right about now." Morgan said, clearly distracted by the thought of food. Frederick quailed slightly.

"R-r-right away... Milady." he ran off incredibly fast to fetch the food.

"It must be so cool having your own personal knight." Morgan spoke distantly, still thinking about food.

"Indeed it is." Lucina looked up at Robin, and for once it was his turn to blush.

Eventually midday had swung around. Chrom had left to talk with Sumia about where he had been, and after tearing her way through the bear meat Morgan and her parents had slipped into Lucina's tent to talk. They talked about Morgan's time, and tried as best they could to get some information out of her. Unfortunately they only got a few fragments from here and there, but what they got gave her parents the notion that it was possible for them to stop the Grimleal and save the world from falling into ruins. They had also touched upon Lucina's past and why she had come from the future, and how she had come to fall in love with Robin (but that's a story for another time). The Shepherds were all eating lunch in the mess tent, and that was when Robin and Lucina had decided to make Morgan's presence known. They had walked into the mess tent first, with Morgan coming in after them. This had obviously turned a few heads at first, as the Shepherds had no idea who this smaller version of Robin was. After a brief period of murmuring and conjecture, Robin had spoken up.

"Well, everyone, as you can see, there appears to be a smaller version of me in the room." Robin cleared his throat and continued talking. "Well, while Chrom, Lucina and I were exploring the ruins up ahead of us, we came across some Risen as you may have heard from Chrom himself already. Well, in those ruins, we met this young lady. I would like you all to meet me and Lucina's daughter... Morgan." Morgan shyly waved her hand as she glanced at everyone in the room. The Shepherds all cheered for the girl, welcoming her into the Shepherds. The future children were all slightly confused however, as none of them knew the girl. As the trio sat down, Lucina briefly explained how she came from a different timeline to ease their worries.

"Say, Morgan, do you have the brand of the Exalt on you?" Chrom spoke and Morgan looked at him inquisitively.

"The brand of the Exalt? I don't believe I know what that is."

"I thought as much. Well, you see this mark on my shoulder?" Chrom pointed to the ancient mark that was imprinted on his skin.

"Yeeaaahhh?"

"Well, that's the brand of the Exalt, or the mark of Naga. If you truly are a descendant of the Hero-King, you too will have this mark."

"It could be anywhere on you, though. Father has it on his shoulder, and I have it in my eye." Morgan turned and Lucina flicked a hand up to her eye to show Morgan the crystal clear brand that was in it.

"Hmm... I don't remember seeing it anywhere on me..." Lucina's face fell. "But I'll go outside and look for it!" Morgan suddenly sprinted out of the room to find a concealed place to check for the mark.

"Your kid certainly is a bundle of energy, huh?" Brady sounded impressed. He was used to his other future friends not being the...Cheeriest bunch around, and he enjoyed the change of character.

"You'd better watch out, if she's anything like you both then we'll have a little genius who smashes all the training dummies!" Sully laughed.

"How did she know it was me that kept breaking the training dummies? I must be more secretive..." Lucina made a mental note to herself to try and hide the evidence whenever she inadvertently (but inevitably) broke the wooden targets. Suddenly they heard a cheer from outside and Morgan came running in.

"Mother! Grandpa! I have it!" Lucina looked a lot more relived.

"Oh? Where?"

"It is... Here!" Morgan lifted a leg up and pointed to a point about halfway down the side of her left thigh. She rolled up the bottom of her leggings to prove it, and sure enough it was there, a bright pink patch that stood out against the rest of her leg. The other Shepherds all smiled seeing the look on Robin and Lucina's faces.

"So you are an heir of the Hero-King. Wow." Robin rubbed his forehead. The fatigue from staying up was beginning to get to him.

"That's amazing, Morgan." Lucina smiled, then yawned. "I'm so proud of my little...Girl..." Lucina suddenly went limp and fell face first on the table. She began snoring heavily, and the others broke out into laughter.

"I know how she feels," Inigo smirked, "I really don't wanna have to march all day tomorrow."

"It'll be fun! And you could use the workout." Cynthia winked at the mercenary and he grumbled under his breath. Morgan pulled up a chair next to Robin and sat down. He gave her a happy look and she grinned widely back at him.

On that day, Morgan had been reunited with her parents, and officially became one the Shepherds.

 **A/N: This was probably my favourite chapter to write so far. Morgan is such an interesting character- there's so much stuff she could end up doing. I hope Kanna (or whatever his/her localised name will be) can live up to the awesomeness that was Morgan. I hope Fates' characters can live up to Awakening's in general...**


	5. Chapter 3: It's All Fun And Games

**This chapter is a tad odd... The characters are a little more OOC (out of character) than usual, but what can you do, eh?**

* * *

"Robin... It's time to get up."

"Zzzz...Gimmeafewmoreminutes..."

"Roooobiiinnn... Your friends are waiting for you."

"...Zzz...Zzz...Justneedtofinishthisdream." Lucina sighed. Robin and his friends were supposed to be having a celebration today (a 'bachelor party' as some people in Ylisstol had started calling it), as Robin was getting married in three days, but the tactician was still asleep. He had gone to bed later the previous night as he spent the entire day catching up with paperwork.

"Robin? You awake now?" Lucina nudged the sleeping man again, but he didn't respond. Taking a deep breath, she leaned over...And screamed in his ear.

"ROOOBBIIIIN!"  
"AAAAHHWHAWAOHOGDSONOCHROMISWEARIHAVEN'T-"Robin slipped off the edge of the bed with a thump. "Oww..." his leg twitched as he dragged himself to his feet.

"You were oversleeping again, dear. Sorry about that." Lucina hopped off the bed and gave Robin his cloak, which he hastily put on.

"At least I got all my paperwork done last night."

"You could just burn it all, couldn't you?" Lucina slung an arm around Robin, "then we would get more time to ourselves..." she smiled coyly at him.

"If it was that simple, I would. But unfortunately for us, duty calls and I have to answer the door to duty. I think it says that in my contract somewhere." the duo walked together towards the castle doors and Robin waved at his friends who were sitting on the floor playing cards.

"There you are! What took you so long?" Inigo said impatiently. He was with Vaike, Gregor, Stahl, Owain and Chrom (who had just trounced Vaike at snap. Vaike was too dim-witted for snap, it turns out.).

"Sorry, sorry. I mayyy have overslept." The group glared semi-angrily at him.

"Have fun, and don't get into any trouble." Lucina kissed Robin on the cheek and walked away. Robin's face went bright red, and his friends all shared a laugh, except for Chrom. The Exalt simply regulated his breathing.

"Shall we get going then? I'm only here for the free alcohol." everyone glared at Vaike. "What?"

The tavern wasn't too far away from the castle, and the group had taken over three of the middle tables in the room. The bartender had been expecting them. The Feroxi tournaments no longer made him enough money (even after the success of the most recent tournament) and he had weighed his options, and found the best course of action was to move. But that's enough about the bartender. He had laid drinks out on the table for the men, and they were already downing the ale with gusto.

"Ahh... This is some good stuff." Chrom wiped some broth from his mouth. He was drinking more than usual, for obvious reasons involving a certain marriage that was going to happen soon. "It'll make it easier for me to drown my sorrows."

"Aha! It fills me with vigour! I can take on any foe when full of the creamy goodness!" Owain stood on the table and Stahl smirked.

"Heh... Creamy goodness."

"Oh shush you, we all know that you and Sully know all about that." Inigo flicked his hand through his hair. Stahl's face grew red and he nearly threw his mug. "Excuse you! That was only once!"

"Only once is an enough of time. There is another who goes by Kjelle now, is there not? Or did you be of name changing to avoid the confusionments?" Gregor was, surprisingly, not drunk already. He could drink lots of ale at once, but his words would start slurring incredibly quickly. Nobody can really tell if that is just part of his nature, or if he's really that intolerant to the stuff (mentally).

"My daughters are lovely, thank you very much." Stahl grasped his mug and drank.

"Speaking of daughters, how's about the fact that Robin is gonna be sheathing his sword int-OW!" a mug bounced off of Vaike's skull and rolled on the floor.

"PLeeaaasse doonnnn't talk... Abouuttt my daughteeeeerrr liiiike thaaattt." Chrom swayed and haphazardly pointed at Vaike. Chrom's face was red and he was surrounded by empty mugs, which the bartender had swiftly refilled.

"Gods, Chrom. You need to slow down before you die from the stuff." Robin chastised his friend, mockingly waggling a finger at him as he spoke.

"Yooouuu can sod... Off... Probabllyyy goonna touch her..."

"If I did that, you would kill me. Unless I go do it now, since you're too drunk." Robin laughed and ducked as five mugs went hurtling in his direction.

"Speaking of Lucina, thanks for crushing my dreams, Robin." Robin turned to face Inigo, who was a bit tipsy. Nowhere near as bad as Chrom, but he was getting there.

"We get it. You had a crush on her. I've heard this before." Robin rolled his eyes.

"Oh, the things I would do to her..." Inigo put his head on the table, daydreaming.

"How about you tell me what you're thinking of? I'll be able to put them into motion in about four day's time." Inigo emptied the contents of his mug onto Robin's face. The tactician sat back and let out an angry laugh, wiping some of the brew from his face.

"I can picture it already: the two of you panting, overflowing with ecstasy, as you thr-"

"WOAH OK THAT'SSSS ENOUUUGGGHHHH..." Chrom sat up and Gregor had to hold the man back.

"Hoy Chrom! Do not be of killing your own nephew! I want to hear the stories' finishing!" Gregor chuckled and Chrom growled, banging his head on the table. Owain went on a tangent on the things Lucina would probably do to Robin, and the others loved hearing his ridiculous fantasies. He must have somehow obtained Sumia's imagination. Robin was more embarrassed at the fact that Owain was going into so much detail, and joined Chrom in trying to destroy his store of emotions with a flood of ale. This continued for about ten minutes, before everyone realised that Robin was getting ready to rip Owain's head off and Vaike decided to change the subject.

"Now then, who wants to play cards?" Vaike pulled a bunch of playing cards out of his pocket. Some of them were bent from when he got mad after losing snap to Chrom, not that it mattered. The other men sat up to play and Vaike handed out the cards with a pretty drunken hand.

"We should, like-HIC-totally add in a rule where you have to strip every time you lose a card." Stahl giggled and the others agreed with excitement. As the day went on, the men had gradually lost their clothing (luckily nobody else was in the tavern with them, except the bartender who didn't care anyway), and Gregor was the one with the most clothes on, only missing his metal chest plate. Inigo and Owain tied for the next place, both having their chests exposed. After them came Stahl, who luckily brought his smallclothes that day. Chrom was after _that_ , and luckily the table covered up most of the view.

It turns out that Robin sucks at card games. He was completely nude, save for his socks. He had insisted on using his cloak to cover himself, but the others had swiped it and taken it out of his reach. By now all the men were drunk out the arse and they could barely talk, let alone keep playing.

"Hahahahahahahaaaaa... Robin, you look like a naaakkkeeed chicken-HIC-" Owain had his hand stuck in a mug and his head was lolling to one side.

"I am nooot a chicken, I am a GREAT dragon! I can breathe fire and fly and you know what I'm gonna fly right now!" Robin jumped out of his chair and tried to jump over the table (emphasis on 'tried'). He had smashed into the side of the table and it had flipped up, whacking Vaike in the jaw and knocking the poor man out. The others were laughing their heads off as Robin lay sprawling on the ground, except for Inigo as he had started a fight with Gregor for no good reason, and they were punching each other drunkenly. Stahl, Owain and Chrom had all slung each other's arms around their shoulders and were singing an incredibly stupid song:

" _Oooohhh, early in the mooorrrrniinnnggg,_

 _We all get uuuuuuuuup and do a duuuummmpppp,_

 _Dropping loads on the caaasssttlllee floooorrr!_

 _The maids cleaaaaaannn and sweeeep,_

 _But slip off theeeeeeiiiirrr feeeettt,_

 _And fall right inttooo the craaaaaaap!"_

Of course the lyrics made no sense, but the men were in hysterics. They could barely stand and were all crying with laughter, and then Chrom puked all over the table. Inigo and Gregor's fight had escalated, and they were beating each other's faces in with pieces of smashed barrels.

" _I can't tell if this has been a great day or a bad one..."_ Robin groggily thought to himself as he rolled over and lay staring at the broken table that he was lying on.

* * *

"I hope that Robin and Father are well." Lucina was sitting down with Sumia in a small room that had a large window in it. The room had two armchairs and a fireplace, and was used mostly by Chrom and Sumia for when they wanted to relax and talk. Since Chrom was out with Robin and his chums, Lucina had taken his place talking to Sumia. Morgan was also in the castle, but was playing with Lucia and Owen (the nickname Lissa had given to her son of the current timeline).

"They'll be fine. Knowing those two, they'll be more sober than the others." Sumia sipped from her cup of tea. She did love a good cuppa, but it seems that neither Lucina nor Cynthia shared that sentiment. The two siblings were much more partial to coffee, which was what Lucina was currently drinking at a much faster rate than her mother.

"I hope so. If Robin comes back here drunk, I'm not speaking to him until the wedding day." Lucina replied in mock-concern.

"I can't wait! Only three days to go until my little girl gets to be married!" Sumia squealed, picturing Lucina and her husband-to-be at the altar in fancy garbs.

"I've never been to a wedding before... Are they scary?" Sumia couldn't help but smile endearingly at the worried look on her daughter's face.

"Not at all!...Well, kind of. When you're walking down the aisle and you see your lover standing there, it makes butterflies start freaking out in your stomach."

"Butterflies?! Isn't that dangerous?"

"It's an expression, Lucina. Anyway, it can be a bit nerve-wracking seeing all those people watching you as you say your vows, but focus on the person in front of you and everything will be fine." Sumia let out a hum of contentment, recalling her marriage to Chrom. "It's going to be one of the happiest days of your life, Lucina. It certainly was for me." the princess nodded, deep in thought.

"When I first came back through time, I never would have foreseen myself being here. I was always under the impression that I had to keep my distance and return to my time once Grima was slain. Ironically, I'm engaged to the man I was supposed to kill. And I've never been happier in my life." Lucina's face flushed and she hurriedly drank some more of her coffee to cover it up.

"You were going to return to your...? I can understand that. I'm glad you didn't. You may be my daughter from another timeline, but you're still my daughter. And I couldn't be more proud of you." Lucina's smile grew wider.

"It m-means a lot to hear you say that, Mother. It truly does. And don't worry, I have no intentions of returning back to my time, not anymore. I have a legendarily optimistic husband waiting for me, and the most amazing daughter I could ask for." The cerulean-haired princess felt her chest tighten as she pictured her family in her head. She managed to keep herself from letting a few tears of joy out, but her voice cracked a little bit and Sumia picked up on that.

"Remember when you used to be so stoical that nobody could talk to you? It's good to see you being more emotive."

"I was only being so distant because of my position. If I'd come up to you and said that I was your child from the future, would you have believed me?" Sumia was silent for a while after that. The two of them sat staring out of the window. They could see a lot of the city from this room, and the people in Ylisstol in their hundreds were moving around the city. A sudden loud made them both jolt and look towards a now-smoking building in the distance.

"Oh gods! What was that?" Lucina jumped off of her chair and readied Falchion.

"I think that was a tavern... Which would most likely mean that..." Sumia realised that if she let Lucina onto the fact that was the tavern where Robin and Chrom were, the princess would flip. Chrom had pointed out the tavern to her while he was waiting for Robin to get up, and she was certain that was exactly where he had pointed.

"What if Father and Robin were in there?!" Lucina had half a mind to smash through the window and make a mad dash for the smouldering building.

"I'm sure they'll be fine! Robin and Chrom have been the prime culprits of situations like this bef-"

"Wait, _WHAT?!"_ Lucina shouted and she glared at her mother. "Are you saying that was _their_ fault?!" Sumia sank back into her chair and gulped. "Mmmm...Maybeeeeeeee?" she squeaked.

"You said they would be the 'most sober?'" Lucina's eyes narrowed and Sumia was so far back into her chair the whole thing nearly fell over.

"I miiggghhtt have lied a teensy-weensy little bit...?" Lucina's face went bright red with rage. She turned around and walked out of the room, slamming the door so hard one of its hinges crumpled. " _Oh gods, this won't be pretty."_ Sumia knew that one Lucina was this angry there was nearly no way of calming her down. She quietly resumed sipping her tea and hoped for the best.

The explosion had in fact been caused by Inigo and Gregor's fight. They had set fire to the barrels in the room with lots of sparks, and some of those barrels just happened to have gunpowder in them. Why was there gunpowder in a tavern? It was the bartender's 'secret ingredient' in some of his drinks. Ylisse really needed to invest in a quality inspection service in some of their taverns. The two men were still going at it in the bar. Their faces were so battered you wouldn't be able to recognise them if it wasn't for their hair. Vaike was still unconscious underneath a table. Stahl had run to get help, as Owain's arm was wrapped behind his back and was stuck. The poor swordsman was trying to keep up with Stahl but barely could as he kept tripping over without his arm being there to support him. Robin and Chrom were now both so drunk they had ended up having a slurred argument about Lucina and they were wrestling each other to the ground outside the tavern... While still incredibly exposed to the elements. There was a crowd of people watching, either yelling in disgust or staring with a slack jaw.

"YOU'REEE DEEAAAD ROBINNNNNNN!" Chrom shouted as he threw the man on the ground. Robin kicked Chrom in the shin and rolled as the man fell. The Exalt's arms were like pistons and he smashed his fists against the ground to stop himself falling, immediately getting back up on his feet. Robin had taken this time to charge at him and head butted him in the chest. The two men fell back on the ground and started pulling at each other's hair, trying to make the other fall over.

"I SAIIDD I WAAASS SORRYYYYY FOR SAYING THOOOOOSE... THINGS!" Robin shouted as he tried wrenching his hair free of Chrom's grasp.

"SAY THAAT ALL YOU WA...ALLLLL YOU WANT..." Chrom coughed and turned his head slightly to allow all of the alcohol he had drunk to re-emerge. Hearing all the commotion, Lucina had stomped her way towards the crowd. She pushed her way to the front, and she saw Chrom, her idol since she was a young child, in only his underwear puking on the ground, trying to rip out her fully nude fiancé's hair.

"FATHER?! ROBIN?!" the poor woman was mortified. The crowd knew what was going to happen. The two men stopped, let go of each other's hair, and slowly turned to face her.

"Urk...Hi Laassooonnaa! How are yoooou?" Chrom wobbled and nearly fell over. Robin went to speak, but couldn't find anything to say. Instead he made a bunch of strange noises and held up his hands in defeat.

In response, Lucina unsheathed Falchion.

* * *

Whenever someone says "Don't make Lucina pissed. You'll regret it." they mean it. Robin and Chrom were covered cuts and bruises-Falchion's pummel was just as dangerous as its blade, and neither of them had expected Lucina to be able to kick as powerfully as she did. They had to be wheeled back to the castle by Sumia and Morgan, now both of the men were lying on the cots in the castle's infirmary room. It had been about eight hours since the princess had beaten the stuffing out of them (so it was around one in the morning), and both of the men had been fed medicines and herbs by Lissa to keep them going. The cleric had gone to find Vaike and give him a good telling off, leaving the two men by themselves.

"How are you holding up, Robin?" Chrom could barely turn his head without aching all over.

"Urgh... How many drinks did I have..." Robin mumbled and tried to turn over, but a sharp twang of pain in his side stopped him. Luckily for him, Chrom took the brunt of the damage and Robin had taken less injuries, but his body wasn't taking too kindly to all the alcohol in it.

"I'll take that as a: 'I'm fine Chrom, thanks for asking!'" Chrom said with a hint of frustration in his voice. He wasn't in the best of moods after that day. He had heard that Stahl and Owain had gotten lost in a forest, Inigo and Gregor were in a jail cell for an overnight stay and Vaike was getting a good yelling at from Lissa. Seeing his own Shepherds (and friends) all in bad positions had left him in a sour mood.

"I'm kinda screwed at the moment, Chrom. That whole escapade could have just sent a three-year relationship down the drain."

"Good! After that display I don't think you're fit to be with my daughter." Chrom turned away from his friend.

" _You take that back."_ Robin spat acidly. Chrom was taken aback a little bit at the harshness in Robin's voice. Chrom wasn't being entirely serious and he thought his own snarky friend would have picked up on that. This simply angered Chrom even further.

" _How dare he talk to me like that? He's the one that started this!"_

"You buggered off for two years, and now you've hurt my precious little girl's feelings on more than one occasion. If you still want my blessing, you aren't getting it." the Exalt was still recovering from the effects of the alcohol and his wounds were still sore. He didn't really mean to be so rude, but the way he was feeling then made it hard for him to try and be civil.

" **TAKE. THAT.** _ **BACK."**_ Chrom turned over and his eyes widened. Robin was standing in front of him, glaring at him.

"Woah, easy there. We wouldn't want Grima McFriendMurderer to come back out, would we?" Chrom tried to be brave in the face of the apparent danger he was facing. With a low growl, Robin walked out of the room and almost ripped the door clean off its hinges.

" _Was that going too far?... Probably."_ He tried getting some sleep, but was still angry at Robin, and at himself for what had happened.

" _That bastard... I sacrificed myself so that him and his bloody family can live, and now we can't have a simple celebration without something going wrong? Great! GREAT. I'm fine with this."_ the tactician had gone for a walk to clear his mind. He had never been that angry before in his life, and he had no idea why he was being so snappy. He and Chrom had gotten into arguments on that scale before, but it had never ended like that. " _Maybe I'm just having a bad day..."_ He just wanted a simple, fun party with his friends, but of course it just had to become some stupid alcohol based punching-fest. The wind had begun to pick up, so he had his hood over his head. He didn't really mind the cold-he simply didn't want anyone seeing all the bruises on his face. Morning had approached quickly, causing Robin to tilt his head downwards to avoid the glare of the morning sun.

" _I can't wait for my marriage to become non-existent in three days! I hope Lucina doesn't see me out here. It would be very easy to hide a body in such a dense forest."_ he glanced around just to make sure, but luckily for him nobody was there. " _And Chrom is a goddamn liar. 'I'm happy for you two! Totally!' Pfft... Sure you were."_ He kicked the ground as he walked, sending a few soggy lumps of mud splattering onto the grass. " _Let bygones be bygones, I guess. I should probably live as a hermit in this forest until I die of poisoning from some mushroom. It's either that, or the wrath of every single member of the royal family. Oh, who am I kidding? They'd find me within a day and then they would prolong my suffering for trying to hide."_ Robin considered his options. Unfortunately for him, they were going to choose themselves in a few minutes. He had been too busy moping to realise that the path he was walking on looped around the forest instead of going through it. He only realised this fact when he heard someone walking up behind him. " _Oh gods. Pleasedon'tbeLucinapleasedon'tbeLucinapleasedon'tbe-"_

"Out for a walk. I should have guessed."

" _OHGODSOHNONONONOPANICPANICPANIC"_ Robin's mind went into overdrive.

"Hiiiiii Lucina!" Robin turned and forced a fake smile onto his face. His anger had temporarily turned into fear. He instantly lost the smile when he saw her scowl.

"Do you _want_ me to use Falchion against you again?" the princess instinctively put her hand on Falchion's pommel.

"Like you would again. Took you two years to do so since I was controlled by Validar." Robin had regretted saying that when Lucina's hands balled into fists.

"Oh, you think _you're_ in a bad mood? How do you think _I_ feel? Seeing my own father acting like that... It was the most embarrassing thing I've ever seen. He's going to be a laughing stock, probably because _you_ started talking about me in front of him." Lucina shivered slightly with rage.

"I was drunk, I couldn't help what I said!" Robin shrugged. He really didn't want to have this argument, but something told him he wasn't getting out of it. His panic was slowly turning into anger.

"That's one of the problems! You're supposed to be a tactician, not some drunkard who goes around boasting about his girlfriend."

"You know what else was a problem? The fact that I was the vessel for your arch nemesis, but that problem literally solved itself."

"You think this is funny? Comparing Grima to your damn drinking problems?" Lucina could barely talk above a whisper, which put Robin more on edge than if she was yelling. His senses were telling him to get out of there, but his brain was too involved at this point to turn back.

"And you think this is the first time Chrom has been in a situation like this? He'll get over it. It's natural for people like me and him to get into drunken fights and make fools of ourselves. Speaking of fighting, I _really_ don't want to be doing this."

"And you know what I don't want to do? Marry you in three days if you're going to be in this sorry state, but I'm still here, am I not?" Lucina titled her head and narrowed her eyes. Robin was trying to keep a calm demeanour, but her remark had really stung, to the point where he felt like stabbing himself in the chest with a sword because it would hurt less.

"And you know what? How do I know you're not going to just disappear again for some 'noble' cause, or that you'll stop doing stupid things with Father? How can I trust you?"

"Because I've been through this before. It was before you were part of the Shepherds, when Emmeryn died." Robin snapped. His voice had an unbelievably bitter tone to it. He took a couple of steps forwards. "I had three different strategies set up for making sure she lived that day, but in the end she still fell. That day was one of the worst in my entire life. I could have _saved_ her, Lucina. I could have changed the future and helped your friends out, without even knowing about them. But I failed. I let the most peaceful and kind woman on this Earth die because I wasn't good enough at my job. Do you know how that feels, and I mean _REALLY_ know how it feels to see all of your effort go to waste when someone's life is on the line? It hurts. It feels like a dagger to the heart." Robin paused for a second. Lucina was listening intently, still on edge. "After Emmeryn's death I drank a lot. I got barely any sleep. I became a shell of my former self. But Chrom and the Shepherds were there to get me out of that dark place. Your father is strong, Lucina: even when his sister had died he managed to keep his rage in to help out his shitty, pathetic friend who thought his problems were worse than everyone else's." Robin took a deep breath. He could feel his eyes clouding over with tears, but he held them back and continued. "You saw your family and friends and all the adults fall, but now you've succeeded in saving them all in this time. You still have _memories_ , Lucina. You can remember all the good times you had with your family... And now you're staying here, you can still have good times with your family. I have no idea who the hell I was as a child. I will never know who my mother was, or why she had a change of heart. I will never remember my childhood friends, or any of the few times of happiness I had as a kid. For all I know I could have had a family waiting for me, wondering why I disappeared, but I will _never_ know. That was a self-fulfilling prophecy now, wasn't it? I _did_ have a family that I left behind because I did what I thought was right. Tell me, what is one life stacked against everyone else's? Grima's death is what you wanted. I just tried making sure that the vile future you tried to so hard to prevent never happened. But I just dug myself a deeper hole, didn't I? If I had told you outright, then maybe we wouldn't be here right now. I love you, Lucina. I have done since we first started talking, and I still do now. I wanted what's best for you, even if you didn't agree with what I did. But now I realise that was all a mistake, because I just push everyone away from me by being a stuck up, rude, selfish little..." his voice trailed off and he lowered his head. He sat on the grass and buried his face in his hands. He cried quietly to himself.

"Oh gods, Robin... What am I going to do with you." Lucina shook her head. She had known the man for three years and had never seen him in such a mess. Even when she raised her blade against him, or when he got angry looks from the other Shepherds, he had always kept himself calm. The princess didn't know what it was, but hearing him pour his heart out like that had made her feel guilty in a way. The anger from earlier was still there, but for the time being she ignored the fact that Chrom was going to be ridiculed for weeks to come. Slowly, she walked up to him, crouched, and put a hand on his shoulder. Robin twitched slightly at the touch, and shot his eyes up for a split second.

"We've both been through a lot. Yes, you may not know what your childhood was like, but saying that you don't have any happy memories isn't true. Think back to the times during the campaigns against Plegia and Valm, I'm sure you'll have something happy to remember from there. Or what about when we first properly met, after that escapade in Carrion Isle?" that night was one Lucina remembered fondly. She had joined Chrom's army as one of the Shepherds and got to know Robin in person.

"'A snarky, potential father-killer.'"

"Pardon?"

"That's what you first called me that night." Robin wiped his face and chuckled. "At first I remember thinking that we wouldn't be on very good terms after that, but here we are."

"You still remember that? Because I had no idea I used such words."

"Neither did I! Yeah, that was word-for-word what you referred to me as. Then we fought alongside each other in the battle that came a few days afterwards. That was when I first, uh..."

"...Fell hopelessly in love with me?"

"Sure. I'll put it that way." the two of them shared a laugh at that. "Since we're both in a better mood, I'd like to...Apologise for earlier. I shouldn't have done what I did. I'll make sure it doesn't happen again." Robin murmured, staring at the ground as he spoke.

"...I'll forgive you. This _one_ time. And yes, you are sleeping in the hallway tonight." Robin groaned.

"I... Gods, I guess that's fair." he leaned his head back and looked at Lucina's face. She was considerably more calm than she was a few minutes ago, but there was still a stern look emblazoned in her eyes.

"Good. Now come on, we're going back to the castle now. You can't stay out here all day." Lucina pulled Robin to his feet and the two of them walked off. Robin decided that he would go and talk with the others to see how they were doing later (and to bail Inigo out of jail), but for now he was content walking home with his bride-to-be.

 **A/N: Fun fact: This chapter was originally going to be a LOT darker. I realised that the idea was stupid and made no sense, so I changed most of the chapter. It's pretty much customary to have Robin or Lucina give a monologue about their crappy pasts, so I plonked one in here. I think this is my weakest chapter, but what can you do? Sometimes you win some, sometimes you lose some.**


	6. Flashback 3: S-Support Achieved

**A/N: This flashback is the moment where a certain tactician and princess become "More than just friends."**

"Finally, we can send in Pegasus and wyvern riders straight forwards. These will ensure that they can't get a height advantage against us." Robin sat back and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He was discussing strategies for the Shepherd's next battle with Chrom, Basilio and Flavia. It had taken him two whole days to figure out a completely fail proof plan that ensured nobody died. Even then, it was still possible that someone would fall in battle and he wouldn't be able to live with himself if they did.

"I have just one question, Robin."

"Fire away."

"What if they bring a Deadlord? There's still a few out there." Basilio poked at the board littered with wooden pieces. "They could put one anywhere over on their side, like to the west for example, and we'd be in for a royal arse-kicking." Robin nearly screamed. He had entirely forgotten about the Deadlords' existence when he was going over the different strategies in his mind. He kicked himself mentally.

"Are you..." Robin got up and swept all the pieces off the board. "Screw it, strategising over for today, I'll figure out that tomorrow." He gave a wave of dismissal to the others and hurriedly left the war tent.

"Poor bastard." Flavia nudged Chrom's shoulder, "Make sure he doesn't overwork himself, ok?"

"I can try, but he's too dedicated to those tactics of his. I can guarantee that once he's had some food he'll be fine." ever since he had taken up the role (officially) as a tactician, Chrom had always seen him getting worked up like that and knew exactly how to calm him down. Usually, it involved bacon. Lots and lots of bacon.

"I sure as hell hope so. A grumpy Robin is no fun." Basilio laughed to himself. He left the tent to check up on the Feroxi soldiers in their barracks. He never said it out loud, but he was proud of every single soldier that had braved the clash against the Valmese on the Feroxi shores. They were the pinnacle of strength from a country renowned for strength, and Basilio couldn't be happier with them all.

"Bacon is proof Naga loves us." Robin mumbled happily and stuffed a bacon sandwich into his mouth. He tried his best not to get crumbs all over his clothes but failed, miserably.

"You should really try to be more careful when eating, Robin." a certain swordswoman had sat herself down next to Robin.

"Oh, hi loofina." Robin tried to speak with his mouth full.

"That's disgusting."

"Hey! Ifft's no..."Robin swallowed the last of his sandwich, "It's not disgusting! It's just eating." Lucina rolled her eyes.

"I will never understand how you managed to becomes friends with Father when you behave like this." her stern look became a frown. Robin had never once seen her smile naturally. Whenever she did smile, it was forced and only because Chrom had asked her to.

"Sometimes friendships just happen, y'know? Me and Chrom are best buddies. He does the stabbing, I do the thinking... Not that Chrom doesn't think, he just acts... Brashly sometimes." Robin spluttered out that last part when he saw Lucina glare at him.

"Sometimes he does, but I think you'll find he has a very good head on his shoulders."

"Indeed he does. After hearing what you said about his demise in the future, I've been looking out for him tenfold. It's the least I could do after all the times he's had my back, in and out of battle." Robin recounted a few of the times that Chrom had hacked down a rogue mercenary about to stab the tactician in the back, or the times when Chrom cheered him up when he was having a bad day. Lucina's face grew a bit less serious.

"He is one of the greatest men on Earth. I'm proud that he's my father."

"You should be! He's going to come out of this war alive, Lucina-you have my word." Robin saluted at the princess and she blushed slightly. All their previous talks had been all doom and gloom and about how they both got put in terrible positions they had-Lucina grew up in an apocalypse and Robin couldn't remember anything except that he was Plegian, and most likely wasn't the nicest person as a kid (and also the fact he had failed to save Emmeryn, something he would always regret).

"Ah, that reminds me! I have to go and speak to Father about... Training with him." Lucina lied, but luckily Robin hadn't caught on. "If it's alright with you, can we continue this talk later?" Robin nodded, grabbing more bacon. Lucina got out of her chair and left the room. Seeing her left made something in Robin's gut sink a little. He didn't know what it was, but it was definitely an odd feeling. He noticed the feeling would re-emerge whenever Lucina and him would start talking, too.

"I think I had too much bacon..." Robin thought to himself, "I get too distracted whenever I'm talking with Chrom's polite, friendly, beautiful..." Robin slapped himself. "AGH! Gods no, Robin! Don't think such things! You can't let yourself feel like this about Lucina. Future or not, she's still his daughter. His pretty, smart... Oh gods, brain. Why did you do this? Of all the people, you just HAD to get a huge liking to the one person that would never like you back. Gaaaaaaaaah..." Robin's thoughts were yelling at each other now. A few of the Shepherds were giving him odd looks as he sat with a hand on his face grimacing to himself.

"Robin? Are you ok?" Virion shook his shoulder.

"Wha-oh yeah I'm fine." Robin hastily got up. "Just got some stuff on my mind."

"You shouldn't trouble yourself, Robin! Think of all the lovely ladies there are in this army and relax-"

"That's my exact problem!" Robin cried. Virion laughed.

"Ohohoho! Is our dashing tactician falling for somebody?"

"...Yes." the other few Shepherds in the mess tent immediately started debating who it could be. Quite a few of them were already engaged, and they had narrowed down the list to just a few people. They had ruled out the future children, which left basically no one. Unless of course...

"Robin, we didn't know you swung that way! Why hide it from-"

"Come on, that's not funny." Robin deadpanned.

"At least it isn't one of the future kids, right?...Riiiigggghhhhttt?" Virion tried lightening the mood, but Robin simply walked out of the tent. "Wait, it is? Robin! Explain yourself!" the archer called out, but Robin was gone by that point. The other Shepherds were stunned.

"This opens up a whole new can of worms. Who do ya think it is?" Vaike asked nobody in particular.

"I'm betting on Cynthia. Seems like the kind of girl he'd go for." Sully shrugged.

"What about Noire or Severa? I'm pretty sure he's on good terms with them both." Cherche spoke deductively.

"Are you kidding? Severa hates him. He'd have more chance with Lucina of all people than..." Vaike's voice trailed off.

"Hang on a minute... They have been talking a lot more recently..."

"And they've been fighting close together in our latest battles."

"But she's Chrom's daughter! That would be suicide for Robin!"

"He's managed to cheat death will all of us before, so it could be possible."

"I think we should all agree that, whoever it is, do not let said person's parents find out. We don't Robin dying on us." the few Shepherds in the room all nodded and murmured.

* * *

"Hoo boy... Okay Robin... You can do this! There's no shame in trying." Robin quietly spoke himself as he paced around the Ylissean barracks. He had no idea how to go about telling one of the most stoic and distant people in Chrom's army that he was in love with her. "Maybe take her on a date?... No, no. Too obvious. How about some flowers? On second thought, I don't think she'd like flowers. How about I forge her a ring in the fires of a volcano!... Nope. Never happening." Robin slammed his head against the wall. "Come on, you fool! Think, think thiiiink!" suddenly, he swung his head away from the wall. "Aha! A good idea! Those are fleeting, Robin. Don't mess it up now!" he had a plan and one that he was proud of. It was simple, really-just take the girl stargazing. She had mentioned the stars before and how they were brighter than they were in the future, so he just had to get her to see them... Somehow. His only problem now was how to ask her to do such a thing. She usually patrolled the camp at night and would rarely do anything else until Frederick woke up (as he would do the early morning and midday shift). "I suppose I could ask her when we next run into each other. She did say she wanted to continue that conversation, after all." Robin mused. "but how will I phrase it? 'Want to go up to the top of a secluded hill by ourselves and lie down? Want to look at some big things where Chrom can't see us?'" Robin thought out many different conversations to himself, but nothing seemed to fit. "Well, I'll just have to wing it and hope for the best." he sighed and left the barracks, praying to Naga that everything would go alright.

Lucina herself was in a similar position. She felt a bit more cheery than usual that morning, and the princess had no idea why.

"I got more sleep than usual today, but that can't be right. Sleep doesn't make me happier." she was on clean up duty today and was packing up all the weapons into their respective crates. "It was breakfast, either. Food is simply there for energy." Lucina dropped the next lot of swords into a large wooden box and slammed it shut. "Maybe it was hearing praise about Father? He and Robin are good friends...Maybe Robin just made me a bit less foul-tempered today. And yesterday. And the day before that. How does he do it so easily?" Lucina frowned and picked up some axes. "He's good with words, I'll give him that. And he at least tries to sympathise with my dilemmas... Oh, and he's saved me from a pinch a bunch of times. He's like my own personal knight." Lucina sighed happily and deposited the axes. "I wish he was here right now so I could say this to his face." Lucina froze. "Did I just think that? No, no... I can't be thinking such things. Diverting from my mission could cause problems... But then he could help me fix them. Gods, my brain hurts." Lucina rubbed her head with her hands. "Maybe I should sit down with him and tell him to stay away for a while. I can't be letting some inconsequential crush get the better of me. It'll go away with time."

"Lucina? Are you ok?" Kjelle was leaning in the doorway.

"Oh, hello Kjelle. I was, uh... Thinking about these axes. Aren't they powerful-looking?"

"You mean the axes that aren't in your hands at all?"

"Uh..."

"I heard you mention the word 'crush...' Spill the beans." Kjelle folded her arms. "It's Inigo, isn't it? I knew it. As a kid you always said-"

"N-no! It's nothing like that at all... I simply... Crushed my hands on the chest lid! That's it!" Lucina pretended to shake her hand in pain, but failed miserably.

"Sure, missy. Oooh, is it Laurent? Sometimes he looks at you in a way."

"NO! No, no noooo!" Lucina pouted and shook her head like a child. Kjelle could barely contain her laughter.

"Aren't you supposed to be serious?"

"I AM! I just don't want to discuss this!"

"What are you two doing out here?" Kjelle turned around and saw Robin smirking. Lucina let out a quiet gasp and pretended to cough to cover it up.

"We were talking about crushes."Kjelle glanced over at Lucina, who's face had gone noticeably red.

"Trying to rope the poor girl into your exercise regimes, huh?" Robin hummed in mock disapproval.

"No, I meant as in love life crushes. I have reason to believe that little miss pouty over there has the hots for someone." Kjelle smirked right back at the tactician.

"Oh, really?" Robin tried not to sound dejected, but his smile suddenly drooping was dead giveaway. Kjelle widened her eyes for a second, but luckily Robin didn't notice.

"Yeah! It's either Inigo or Laurent... Probably."

"Will you stop talking about it?" Lucina huffed.

"Well, they're both good men." Robin spoke with a slight tone of envy, "personally I'd say that Laurent suits you most."

"ROBIN! Stop saying such things!" Lucina blushed so hard Robin was concerned that a blood vessel in her cheeks had burst.

"Maybe he's saying Laurent because he's most like Robin?" Kjelle smirked even wider and Robin glared at her. She walked away, laughing, leaving the two red-faced Shepherds alone.

"Robin, please. For the love of Naga, I don't have a crush on... Anyone." Lucina tried her best to sound confident but Robin looked at her in such a way her legs wobbled slightly.

"Oh... Well, uh, hopefully you'll find the right guy someday." Robin gingerly pulled at his collar.

"Who knows? He could be close by and I would never know... Heh." Lucina looked downwards and lightly kicked the ground with her left foot.

"This might be a b-bad time to ask, but I was wondering if you would... If you w-would like to go stargazing with me tonight?" Robin stepped back, fearing the worst. Lucina looked up at him and cocked her head slightly.

"That would be wonder-" Lucina spoke loudly but cut herself off. "That would be... Fine. I would love to see the stars in this time without anything getting in the way for once."

"Great! I'll... See you after dinner tonight?"

"Y-yes... Yes." Lucina turned around and awkwardly resumed putting away weapons. Robin turned and walked away so fast he still holds the world speed record for fastest walker to this day.

"So, how'd it go?" Robin jumped and looked to his side. Kjelle had been sitting on a tree branch, just in range of their conversation.

"Kjelle?! What are you doing up there?"

"Oh, just listening to some people. Don't worry, Robin. I've seen you in action. You two get along like Risen and my lance's tip. But, Lucina is one of my greatest allies and closest friends, so hurt her... And I'll hurt YOU." Robin gulped and shuffled backwards.

"You can read people better than I give you credit for." Robin made a mental note to add the fact that 'Kjelle was smarter than she let on' onto her page in the roster.

"I get that reaction from a lot of people. And if you were wondering, your secret's safe with me." The knight tapped the side of her nose with her finger. Robin hastily nodded and fast-walked back to camp.

* * *

Evening had loomed over the camp much faster than Robin hoped. He'd holed himself up in his tent and tried not to panic, but he had no idea where to take the conversation to confess his feelings for Lucina. What if she rejected him? What if she really did have a crush on somebody? The thoughts raced through his mind like wildfire. He had sped through his evening meal and had snuck away to calm himself down before the big moment. He took deep breaths, and waited by the foot of a large hill.

"Everything will be fine. Everything will be ok. This will go alright. There's nothing to worry about." Robin slapped himself twice to try and get some motivation through his head.

"YOU'VE GOT THIS" YOU'VE GOT-"

"You really ran off after you finished your food." Lucina casually strode up to the tactician.

"OK YOU DON'T HAVE THIS"

"Sorry, I was a bit...Nervous." Nervous was an understatement. He had to take a large swig from some whiskey he had lying around in his tent to get even the tiniest amount of calmness before making his way to the hill.

"I can relate to that feeling." Lucina scratched her head nervously, "I think it's time we went up the hill now. The stars are beginning to come out."

"Oh, yeah! Right!" Robin wheeled around and sped up the side of the grassy knoll. Lucina swiftly followed, nearly overtaking him. Once they were at the top, Robin wheezed and fell onto his back.

"You can see so much from up here..." Lucina said in awe. She sat herself down next to Robin, and reluctantly lied down on the grass. The clouds had begun to part and the stars shone incredibly brightly. They were breathtaking-the glowing orbs in the sky twinkled and glittered.

"Wow... They're so clear..." Robin titled his head slightly and had never seen Lucina in such a serene state.

"Yeah, they're amazing. I especially love the constellations... I think Acaba's belt is over... There!" He pointed towards a set of three stars that were almost in a line.

"Do you mean 'Orion's' belt?" Lucina giggled.

"...Yeah, yeah." Robin's heart started beating furiously. He had never heard the princess laugh before.

"I love the stars... They remind me of my fallen friends."

"I could say the same. Whenever I'm not around someone that I love, the stars are always there to calm me down." Robin sighed and closed his eyes. "You know, they remind me of you sometimes." Lucina's face flushed.

"W-what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that they're like you... Like your eyes for instance. They're bright and have seen a lot."Lucina shifted her head away out of embarrassment.

"Trying to compliment me w-w-won't do you any favours..."

"Ah, you got me. I'm sorry, I've never really tried flattery before."Robin chuckled.

"I never said stop." Robin's body jolted slightly in shock.

"What?! Um... Ok... Well, the stars are like your eyes as I've just said, and... They... Shine as bright as you do when you smile! But there nowhere as near as pretty as you are, and..." Robin ran out of things to say. He huffed and tried to regain his composure.

"Robin..." Lucina sat up and stared endearingly at him. She had a small, shaky smile on her face.

"Lucina... I... I don't know how to put this, but..." Robin sat up too. "Oh gods, I'd better just say it: Lucina... I'm in love with you. I never thought that I would be here, saying this to anyone, but then you came along. Out of all the people in camp, you were never afraid to say... Not very nice things about me. You're an honest person, but kind too under that emotional mask of yours. I can see the determination in your eyes and your willingness to help out. You're perfect in every sense of the word, Lucina... I promise, and I swear to Naga, to Chrom, to all the people in Ylisse- I love your more than I can put into words. And I will never leave your side. For as long as I live." Robin blushed so hard he nearly fainted. He closed his eyes and gripped the grass so hard his knuckles turned white.

"Robin... Oh gods, I never thought I would hear you say that." Lucina sniffed, grabbing hold of Robin's right hand. Robin opened his eyes and removed his grip from the grass.

"We may have met not that long ago, and I wasn't the nicest person to you around... But as we talked to each other, I felt like I could finally open up to somebody for once in my life... And that person was you. Today, when we chatted about Father... That was when I knew it. I... Love you, Robin. I love you more than Mother, or Father, or anyone else. Nothing would make me happier right now than being with you." by now she was crying tears of joy and scooted closer to the tactician. He put his arm around her and held her close to his side.

"Today has been amazing." Lucina said meekly, leaning on Robin's side. She loosened her body a bit, and cuddled up to the tactician as much as she could.

"It went faster than I expected... This morning we were talking about Chrom, and now we're here. Speaking of Chrom, I can safely say now that I will NOT let him get hurt again. I would put my own life on the line if it meant saving him. I know how much he means to you-he is my best friend, after all, and I will do my damn best to make sure he doesn't die any time soon."

"I appreciate that a lot, Robin. But please promise me that you won't deliberately risk your own life for his sake. I want to be with you, Robin, and I don't want to see another loved one die." the princess shuffled so close to Robin that she was nearly entirely on his lap. He draped his cloak around her and ran his finger through her hair.

"I can try as much as I can to balance out the life-risking and Chrom-saving." Robin froze for a second. "Oh gods, Chrom! What do you think he's going to think of thi-"

"We can tell him in a few days. For now, I just want to spend time with you without you worrying." Lucina gently pulled on his chin and brought his head down next to hers. She readied herself for a second, then kissed him on the cheek."And I'm not going to let Father get between us."

"I... I d-d-don't... Know what to... Say..." Robin stammered. Lucina giggled again and Robin nearly had a heart attack.

"How about 'I am yours and nobody can change that?'"

"Yeah...T-t-t-that works..." they both shared a quiet laugh. They spent the entire night sitting on the hill, looking at the stars, enjoying each other's company. They had both managed to sneak back to camp, and parted ways to go to their tents. Lucina had made up an excuse, saying that she decided to try and find any extra fruit supplies in the forest, and Robin had said he just happened to be going for a walk to clear his mind when they met. Chrom had (surprisingly) believed them both, and the next few days went by without a problem.

After a couple of weeks the day came when Robin finally had to tell Chrom...

But you've already read that chapter.

 **A/N: Yup, more fluff. This chapter might need a bit more buildup, but I'll wait to see other people's views on it before I tamper with anything. Whoever gets the reference hidden in this chapter gets an imaginary cookie!**


	7. Chapter 4: Holy Matrimony

"Chairs in place?"

"Yep! All... eighty-seven of them."

"Excellent. How about the decorations?"

"All exactly half a metre apart, sir!"

"Floor polished?"

"As squeaky clean as possible!"

"Any vermin exterminated?"

"Nope, there weren't any around!"

"Tremendous! Now, we must hurry! The guests will be arriving soon!" Frederick and Donnel had spent all morning making sure everything was in order. They had lots of space to work with, as Chrom had organised for an entire church in the south of Ylisstol to be used as a venue (Lucina had protested, but Chrom insisted that she was royalty and deserved to have a big wedding). All of the Shepherds were going to be attending, as well as some of the other royals (as Lucina was a princess, after all) from different countries. In order to avoid any suspicions, Chrom had told everyone who wasn't a Shepherd that Lucina was a cousin of his and had been raised away from Chrom's family in case of a Plegian attack. Robin had managed to sort through the loopholes of this ploy and added that records of her family had been "lost during the war on Plegia" and luckily for both him and Chrom everyone was gullible enough to believe them.

"Hey, you guys! We've got company!" He had never shown such capabilities before, but Henry had managed to create so many different banners and decorations that even Cherche of all people was stunned. The dark mage had helped Frederick and Donnel by being a lookout in case anybody showed up early, and it was a good thing he was there.

"Who is it?"

"I can't see them that well, but... I think it's Libra." all three of them sighed in relief. The last thing they wanted was all the nobles they didn't know that well showing up, it would have been very awkward for them all.

* * *

On the subject of awkward, Robin was stuck in a room with Tharja. She had _asked_ to talk with him before he had to leave, and had strapped him to a chair to make sure he didn't run away.

"You know how I feel about this already." Tharja began circling the chair, speaking quietly. "Master Grima may be gone from within you, but that doesn't mean I'm going to give up my... Hobbies."

"If I wasn't in such a good mood today I would be terrified right now."

"Yes, yes I gathered that. Now, on the subject at hand... Congratulations." Robin raised his eyebrows and looked at her sceptically.

"Oh? Well, thanks? Honestly, I exp-"

"You expected me you curse you or something, whatever. Since you're actually _happy_ being with that girl, I'm just going to say 'you'll get yours' and not interfere. I am married to Henry already, after all. But, as a prior warning: Don't be surprised if you see me stalking you in the middle of the night. It gives me something fun to do."

"Phew... Thanks, Tharja. I owe you one." Robin was thankful that she did have a good side to her, albeit a slightly warped good side. After Robin and Lucina's relationship had been known to the Shepherds, the duo would have to put up with a different curse from the witch each week before Henry intervened.

"No worries. I may be the social outcast who hexes people for fun, but I do have a heart sometimes... If you can believe that. Now go on, go get married. I'll be rooting for you." Tharja unbound Robin and he graciously nodded before walking away to change out of his pyjamas.

"Gods, there's so many knots in your hair! How could you let this happen?"

"I'm not one for-ow!-looking after my hair!" Lucina cried. Severa was combing her hair vigourously and Noire was trying to do up the back of her dress.

"I think that it goes like this? Severa, is this right?" the red-headed girl glanced downwards from the back of Lucina's head to where Noire was sheepishly trying to pull some straps together.

"Yep, that looks fine!" Noire beamed and stepped away to admire her friend.

"Are you-Eek!-Nearly done messing with my-owwww!" Lucina grimaced. Severa was certainly good at combing, but whenever she encountered a knot she wouldn't try to untangle it gently. Instead, she would just the drag the comb harder through the princess' hair until the knot was no more.

"I know what I'm doing, and what I _am_ doing takes time! Gods, you should know by now! This is your big day, you have to look perfect for Robin!"

"I'm pretty sure he always thinks she's perfect." Noire interjected, raising a hand in the air as she spoke.

"Of course he would, because he's a damn sap! Robin and Lucina, sitting in a tree, somehow getting married before _me!_ " Severa huffed and dragged the comb through Lucina's hair with so much force that Noire was surprised Lucina didn't end up bald.

"Owwwoww! Ok Severa, I think my hair is fine now!" Lucina tried her best to squirm away from her friend but Severa used the comb as a grappling hook.

"Nonsense! There's still a few knots left!"

"Oh gods..." Noire sat down. That morning was going to be a long one.

* * *

"Where's the whiskey when I need it?"

"Getting drunk can wait for later, friend. For now you must calm your nerves."

"I'm trying, but it's really difficult to do so! What if the rings go missing? What if Chrom kills m-"

"Robin, today will go smoothly as smooth can be." Libra and Robin were currently standing at the altar. Robin's clothes consisted of... The exact same ones he wore every day! Except this specific cloak was hoodless and was bright white and gold instead of purple and black, and the Grimleal markings were gone too. Instead, the mark of Naga was emblazoned on the back. Chrom himself had given it to Robin and he was grateful for it. He probably would have died of shame if he had to the wear the Plegian cloak on his wedding day.

"I really hope it does, or I'm not gonna make it." If someone has butterflies in their stomach when they're nervous, then Robin had several tiny Grimas circling around in his gut.

"Heya you two! Sorry I'm a bit late!" Inigo came dashing towards the men. Robin was going to ask Chrom to be his best man, but since he was the father of the bride he couldn't. Instead, Robin had asked Inigo, as they were good friends and Inigo was one of the few people who could put up with Robin and his snarky attitude (Inigo also provided a person to talk to when Robin found out he was Grima's vessel. For a hopeless flirt, Inigo could be a rather caring man). Robin had to repay him somehow after Inigo saved his life more than once from an angry Chrom.

"Ah, Inigo! Do you have the rings?" Libra shook Inigo's hand.

"Yeah, they should be..." Inigo rummaged around in his pocket for a while. Then he froze. Robin fainted.

"Oh dear... Inigo?" Libra tried his best not to look angry, but when Libra got mad it showed.

"Right here, haha!" Inigo lifted his hand out of his pocket and showed Libra the rings.

"Tsk tsk tsk..." Libra shook his head "there's a time and a place for pranks."

"OH GODS ROBIN!" Frederick blundered through the room towards them. "GET OFF THE GROUND! WE CAN'T LET YOUR CLOTHES GET DIRTY!" Frederick scooped Robin up, and with one large inhale blew all the dust and dirt off of his clothes.

"Uh, Fred? Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"He must be _CLEAN!_ " Frederick stood the man up against the altar.

"Won't you just get spit on his clothes?" Inigo frowned.

"Not at all! I purify my mouth every morning with the juices of a mint plant, and that removes any and all traces of saliva from my mouth!"

"But we need spit for eating."

"You may do, because you have an unsound mouth. However, I can bite through sheet metal!" Frederick boasted, tempted to chomp on his own armoured arm just to prove his point. He was wearing his usual armour, but underneath his black suit and tie were visible.

"Calm down, both of you. Robin will wake shortly and then we can continue this discussion."

"Action stations! Lotsa people incoming!" Henry and Donnel came bounding in and plonked themselves down on some chairs. As the Shepherds were all Robin's friends, they got dibs on the best seats.

"Right, deep breaths... Remember your lines..." Libra calmed himself and gently shook Robin awake.

"Uhhhhh... Wha... Oh! Right!" Robin hopped away from the altar and stood upright.

"Good luck, pal!" Inigo turned to sit on a chair. Robin gave his friend a thumbs up and waved at all the people who entered the building.

"You look amazing, deary!" Sumia was gushing over Lucina's dress again. They were waiting for Chrom to stop hyperventilating in his office.

"Thanks Mother... I'm not used to wearing such things." Lucina's words fumbled a bit. She was trying desperately to not show her nervousness, to some effect.

"Once today is done, I'll make sure Robin gets you the best dresses in Ylisse!" Sumia grinned and jumped up and down in excitement.

"I really don't see why this needs to be such a big event. This timeline's version of me is next in line to the throne, and I don't need to have such a big wedding anyway."

"We have been over this, Lucina." Chrom exited his office and put his arms around Lucina and Sumia, "and even though you aren't from this time you're still royalty. Even if you don't want to be treated as such. Well, that and Robin is technically royalty too, since he is Validar's son."

"But it's going to be so nerve-wracking being in front of so many people!"

"Of course it will be! Getting the shivers before a wedding is part of the experience!" Chrom spoke proudly.

"He's only saying that because he nearly fainted twice on our wedding day." Sumia deadpanned.

"Ok, discussion over. We need to get going!" Chrom loosened his grip on the women and strode ahead of them. They quickly followed behind him.

"Oh, Lucina? You're still going to have a coronation." Chrom spoke over his shoulder.

"Uh, isn't that food?"

"No silly, every time a member of Ylissean royalty gets married the two of them get officially crowned as such a few days afterward!" Sumia piped up, pointing to the small gold crown that she was wearing.

"Oh. That seems a bit much."

"Nonsense! It's been tradition for years!"

"Just make sure you don't accidentally call me "Father. As far as the people of Ylisse are concerned, we're cousins." Lucina nodded in understanding.

"Won't they wonder why you're having such a panic attack over your _cousin_ getting married?"

"Well, I guess if they wonder why I'm the father of the bride, I'll say... Uh..."

"That your cousin looked up to you like a father figure when she was younger because the rest of her family weren't around?" Sumia suggested.

"That works, I guess." Chrom shrugged.

"Everything will be fine, Lucina." Sumia spoke quietly to her and the princess nodded.

"I hope so..."

* * *

By now the church was almost completely full. The Shepherds had taken the first two and a half rows, and some of the nobles and other important people were more at the back (not because they didn't like Robin or Lucina, mainly because they were all saps who had a habit of crying during stuff like this and didn't want to embarrass themselves). Even Walhart was there. _Walhart. Was at. A wedding._ He had gotten an invitation, but nobody had expected him to actually show up. He even dressed nicely like everyone else, and had somehow obtained a suit that fit him without ripping at the biceps. The other surprise guest was Gangrel-in fact, he was the organist for the ceremony. He had been given a couple of nasty glares from the Shepherds, but Robin had backed him up and he proved to them all that he had changed his ways by playing a funky organ solo while they were waiting.

"I'm glad to see that everyone is here." Robin spoke to Inigo, who got one of the cool chairs that was slightly further forwards than the others (as he was the best man).

"Yeah, it's a good turnout. We might need a lot of tissues, though." the two men grinned.

"Maybe. If anything, I'm gonna need some." Suddenly, Cordelia ran into the building and yelled down the aisle.

"They're nearly here!" Gangrel raised his hands, ready to play the organ.

"Oh gods... Here we go!" Robin took a deep breath and settled his nerves. His hands were still shaking like a boiling kettle, but he couldn't stop them no matter how hard he tried.

After a few minutes, Chrom and Lucina appeared in the doorway. Gangrel cracked his knuckles and started playing the wedding march. Everyone in the room cheered as Chrom took Lucina by the arm and they both walked down the aisle. Robin took a good look at them both (especially Lucina); Chrom was wearing a dark blue suit complete with a white rose in his lapel (at least Robin thought it was a rose. For all he knew it could have been a crumpled tissue), and Lucina was wearing the most amazing dress he had ever seen. It was pure white with two lines of stitches on either side, arranged in a cross pattern. It had two white and gold metal shoulder plates like the ones Lucina always used to wear, and the train of the dress flowed behind her like a river of silk. As Robin had half-expected, Falchion was still in its sheath on the side of her hip. After being in her same battle clothes and boots for three years, Robin liked the change of pace. Turns out Lucina could rock a pair of high heels. Lucia and Morgan were the bridesmaids, and were scattering petals everywhere (which was the exact reason why they wanted to be bridesmaids in the first place-to make a mess). Once they reached the altar Chrom gave Lucina a quick hug for luck and sat down next to Inigo with Lucia and Morgan in tow.

"Go Mother! Go Mother! It's your birthday!" Morgan cheered.

"Actually Morgan, my birthday... Oh, wait. That's one of those expressions, isn't it?" this got a few laughs from the crowd. She turned around and looked at Robin.

"Hi, dear."

"Helloooo!" Robin sputtered. He tried his best to stop shaking, but he could barely contain his excitement... And his nervousness. Libra cleared his throat.

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to witness the marriage between Robin and... Lucina." since Robin didn't have a surname (and nobody knew the Hero-King's family name, either-it had been lost to time) they went strictly by their first names. Robin had tried to make his surname 'A really cool guy who is better than Chrom' but wasn't allowed to, for obvious reasons. "Today is a celebration of their everlasting love for each other, and to allow both of them to create a lifelong bond between each other." Libra took a second to glance around the room. "Naga welcomes each and every one of you into her house, and says that there'll be drinks later." Libra smiled slightly at his own joke. This got a few snickers from the Shepherds and Gangrel let out a small cheer, just to make sure everyone knew he wasn't on Grima's side. "Now, as per tradition in Ylisse, you two will say your oaths to each other." Libra looked between Robin and Lucina, who were staring into each other's eyes without saying a word. "Uh... You two? Are you still with us?" Libra gently tapped Robin's shoulder.

"Wha-ohhh yeah, right! The... Uh... The oath part!" the crowd once again broke into quiet laughter. Robin took another deep breath, and prepared to speak.

"Lucina, when I first met you, I never once imagined that I'd be talking to you like this. I've told you this before lots of times, but it still stands. You were a woman with a mission, and I'm not sure if it was by luck that we managed to start having casual conversations together." Lucina smiled warmly at him, and Robin continued. "now that we _are_ here, I want to reiterate my promise I made to you on top of that hill three years ago: No matter what happens, whether it's good or bad, I will be here for you and for Chrom. And I will make sure no harm comes towards either of you." Robin put his hand over his chest for a second. There were a few 'awws' from the onlookers, and Lucina let a single tear fall down her face before Libra turned his head to her, signalling it was her turn to talk.

"When I first arrived here from the future, I always figured that everything would be simple- stop Fa-uh, I mean Chrom from getting hurt," a few eyebrows in the room raised at the 'future' part (as far as they were aware, Lucina was Chrom's cousin), but Chrom and Robin knew that would happen. They would explain to the nobles later about that (or just get Henry to alter their memories), but for now they all ignored it. "And then once Grima was killed I would return to my own time. But then my friends got scattered and I had to track them down as well as intervene with anything dire that I had heard of in my time. Not once did I think that I would meet a snarky, potential Chrom-killer, or that I would fall in love with said person." her voice wavered a little, but she managed to keep herself together "and now here I am. I swear to Naga that I will stay with you, through thick and thin, for the rest of our lives. I won't let you get caught up in any war, or be used as any stupid dragon's vessel ever again." she nodded her head and clenched her fist in determination. This time, it was Robin's turn to cry a little.

"Aww, mum and dad are so _cute_ together!" Morgan squealed and held onto Chrom's arm, causing him to grimace slightly. Sumia held onto his other arm, and Chrom sat there with a bright red face.

"Pssh. Love is... Love is for the weak." Walhart murmured. He was sitting in between Priam and Yen'fay, who had spent his time helping Say'ri out in Valm. Priam tilted his head up and looked at the giant man.

"Says you... I can see your eyes getting watery... Are you crying?"

"No!" Walhart turned his head away.

"My gods, you totally are!"

"I am no-oooo-oott!" Walhart wailed and grabbed hold of the two swordsmen, dragging them into a bear hug.

"Urk... Can't breathe..." Yen'Fay spluttered, trying to squirm his way out of Walhart's grasp.

"Inigo? The rings, if you will?"

"Gotcha." Inigo stood up and handed the couple the two golden rings that he had in his pocket.

"Now, you two must give each other their rings. Oh, and say some more pleasant things too." Libra smiled slightly and Lucina cleared her throat.

"Robin, I love you. A lot... Even more than Chrom likes pies, or Frederick likes Chrom." that prompted a laugh from the knight, "and... Uh... This ring is proof? Is that what you're supposed to say?" Libra nodded. "Right, yes, this ring is proof that I want to spend the rest of my life with you and that our bond will never be broken." she slipped the ring onto Robin's finger. He looked at it closely. The patterns on it made a series of small hearts, and there was a pearl on it that had been fused seamlessly into the metal.

"This. Ring. Is. Awesome." Robin grinned and Lucina blushed a little. "Oh, right. It's my turn now." Robin spent a second to think of the right words to say, and then he spoke. "Lucina, you are the reason I get up in the morning. You're like the bacon to my sandwich, the book on strategies to my bookshelf." the shepherds laughed at that. Even on his wedding day, food and tactics occupied Robin's mind. "And I love you more than I can put into words." he carefully took Lucina's hand and slid the ring in his free hand onto her finger. "And with this ring as proof, I will... Oh, wait. As proof of my undying love to you, I give you this ring." On Lucina's ring there were the same heart-shaped patterns, but it also had a small diamond embedded in the surface of the metal. Robin had given Basilio and Priam a lot of gold to go mining for it (as they were among the most able miners in the army) and even though the diamond was small, Robin was incredibly proud of their handiwork.

"Wow... This is beautiful." Lucina gazed at the ring and her face flushed.

"Not as beautiful as you, though." She was touched by Robin's little remark, and Robin was touched that she was touched. This in turn made Lucina even more touched that Robin was touched, and this touched the audience a little. This caused Lucina and Robin to both be even _more_ touched at the fact everyone _else_ was touched.

"Come on, Robin! Now is not the time for being a sap!" Basilio laughed heartily until Olivia turned her head to glare at him.

"Now, if, for whatever silly reason, any of you in this room today object to this couple's marriage, speak your concerns now." Libra spoke blankly to the crowd. For the smallest, most minute of seconds, Chrom's mouth moved, but Sumia gripped his army so tightly he shut his mouth before anyone could notice.

"Thank Naga." Libra clapped his hands together. "By the power invested in me, I now pronounce you man and wife. You may now kiss th-" before he could finish speaking they were already kissing, holding each other close. The crowd applauded, and some of the Shepherds took the time to hold hands or cry a bit out of happiness. Robin lifted Lucina off the ground a little and spun her around. After a solid twenty seconds of kissing, they finally let go of each other.

"My little girl... All grown up..." Sumia sniffed and wiped away a couple of tears.

"Damn it, Robin..." Chrom suddenly burst into tears, making everyone jump a little.

"Daddy, don't cwy! You should be happy!" Lucia tugged on his arm.

"I _am_ happy, Lucia! That's why I'm crying!" Chrom suddenly pulled the rose out off of his lapel and blew his nose into it.

"Eww, dat's disgusting daddy." Lucia stood back a bit and pretended to gag (a skill she had learned from Morgan. Morgan acted as a mentor to Lucia, and would always tell her stories or play with her whenever they had the time).

"Hooray for big sis!" Cynthia let out a cheer. Owain and even Gerome cheered, too. The newlywed couple bowed, and held hands.

"Now then, you two can make your way over... That direction." Libra pointed to the right. "We'll let you both have a few minutes to yourselves, then we'll join you for some food." the couple nodded happily, and Robin picked up Lucina and carried her out of the church bridal style (obviously). As they left, they were greeted with cheers and pats on the back from their friends and a couple of the nobles, who decided that they would keep the fact that time travel was involved to themselves.

"Robin... That was wonderful..." Lucina nuzzled her face into Robin's chest and in turn Robin held her even tighter. "I'm so glad that I met you."

"I hope every day could be as happy as this one. Killing Grima was worth it to see you as happy as this." Robin sniffed. He was still all emotional and teary-eyed from just a few minutes ago, but tried his best to not have a nose-related accident. "Ooh, do I smell bacon?"

* * *

"After the couple had spent a while chatting between themselves, the others had all arrived at a smaller building that had been filled with tables, that in turn were smothered with food. Lucina's family and the future children all got to sit on the 'important people' table.

"Ahh... Bacon..." Robin was in heaven. There was meaty streaks all over his side of the table.

"You need to be careful buddy, or you're gonna end up dying from the stuff." Owain took some of the bacon for himself. "Let me help you with that!" Robin gave him a mock-scowl and the two of them laughed.

"You were so awesome today Mother! You should be a model or something!"

"Trust me, I wouldn't make it as a model. I'd probably end up stabbing someone for saying something before the day is out."

"That's a load of wyvern dung! You're a princess, that means you're automatically a cool person!"

"Hey! What about your poor old Father?"

"'Old' is certainly right..." Morgan smiled cheekily. Robin huffed and shoved more bacon in his mouth.

"So, you two going on a honeymoon soon?" Kjelle smirked and waggled her eyebrows.

"Ohhhh, yesssss..." Robin waggled his eyebrows back.

"Who says we have to wait until our honeymoon to do that?" Lucina winked at Robin and he started grinning like an idiot.

"Oh gods, I do _not_ want that picture in my head..." Chrom groaned.

"Sorry Father, but I'm Robin's woman now." Lucina smiled coyly at Chrom, who took a large swig from his bottle of whiskey.

"Actually, I'd say you wear the Falchion in this relationship."

"Hmm... Maybe I do. Maybe I don't."

"Well, I can prove it. You want to go shopping with Severa and Noire next week and I have to be there to carry the bags." Robin sighed. The three girls in question all laughed.

"Robin, you can't be _that_ submissive. Lucina is supposed to be the quiet one!" Severa folded her arms and nodded her head at Robin with a smug look.

"Not anymore. From here on out I'm probably going to be the one getting dragged out a pub drunk."

"Oh, so it's ok when you do it now?" Robin snatched Chrom's whisky and drunk some.

"Yes, because I am your loving wife and you wouldn't want me being upset now, would you?" Lucina joined Severa and folded her arms, too.

"Now I know where all my snarky remarks went... You stole them from me." Robin slumped in his chair and solemnly shoved more food down his gullet.

"You've rubbed off on me, Robin. After all, you did say that you wanted me to be more optimistic." Lucina raised her head up triumphantly.

"Right, I think it's time to get all the speeches out of the way." The Exalt looked over at Inigo, who nodded in confirmation. Chrom stood up. He stood up and cleared his throat loudly to get everyone's attention.

"Hello, everyone. I'm so glad you could all make it today. I'm sure you all know how I feel about this entire marriage already..." he glared at Robin for a second, "but I'm going to let it slide. When I first heard that my own daughter, although from a different time, was dating my best friend... I died a little on the inside, honestly. There were so many fine young men in my army, and she picked the snarky man who could barely swing a sword." Chrom let out a sigh of mock-anger and the Shepherds laughed. "But love is love, at the end of the day. And let's not get started on when Morgan showed up." he glanced at his grandkid who waved at him sheepishly."That day was comparatively worse than when Robin and Lucina kissed in front of everyone... And then fell off a cliff. But now, they're married and I'm going to, albeit reluctantly, let my grudges go. Robin, you are my greatest friend. You've been with me through a lot, and we're two halves of the same whole. I know that you'll take great care of Lucina for me, and I'm happy for you both. Even if I don't show it." Chrom finished his speech and sat down to a polite round of applause. Next, Inigo stood up.

"Hi everyone! Yeah, I got to be the best man. Are you proud of me yet, mum?"Inigo looked over at Olivia and she shyly gave him a thumbs up. "So, how did I meet Robin? Well after flirting with some girl and fighting off some bandits, I got to be part of the Shepherds. At first I was a bit sceptical, being a time traveller and all, but I got over that considering my friends were all in the Shepherds too! So much for being 'incognito,' guys!" Inigo turned and sarcastically clapped at his friends, who all shared a laugh. The non-Shepherds in the room once again wore slightly confused faces at the mention of time travel. "Anyway, Robin and I first talked in the barracks about the fact I was flirting with everything. What can I say, me and Virion are in an exclusive club." Inigo paused and smiled when he heard Virion cheer. "After that, we just became friends. He'd drag me away by the ear from some lovely lass, I would chastise him for it, and then we would play cards. I was kinda envious that Lucina fell for Robin instead of dear old moi, but Robin? You're a great guy. Keep doing what you doing, and I'll be there to give you a pat on the back and say 'I'm sorry I flirted with another girl! Please don't hurt me!'" most of the people in the room rolled their eyes at that. Of course Inigo would talk about girls more than the wedding. The mercenary bowed and sat down. The second he did, Morgan sprang up.

"I finally get to do something cool! I get to do an actual speech! How cool is thaaaaat!" Morgan squealed. She had never got to do a speech before. "So, Mother and Father: They're both awesome! Mother is a really good swordswoman and she kicks ass! Father... Uh... Reads books, and is good at chess! Oh, yeah! And can use magic! That's, like, SOOOOOOO coooool!" everyone in the room couldn't help but laugh at Morgan's bubbly attitude. It was refreshing to see someone so energetic, especially when they were a member of royalty. They were all so used to kings and queens who were dead serious and didn't know how to have fun, but Chrom's family changed all that. "I can't remember where I came from, apart from the fact that Father was still really good at chess but had loads more wrinkles on his face. Mother on the other hand... Uh... From what I can remember, was still really pretty looking! I swear, how do you do that? Are you immune to aging because of time travel? Anyway, I've never seen Mother and Father so happy, and I'm proud of you both! Now hurry and make this time's me show up!" Morgan sat down and the room erupted into loud cheers. If being a tactician didn't work out, she would definitely make it as an entertainer. Next in line in the chain of speeches was Robin. He _had_ thought of writing down a speech, but decided to wing it instead.

"So, today was fun. I got married. And Walhart cried. Never thought I would see that in my life!" Walhart simply shrugged his shoulders and muttered under his breath. "But in all seriousness, today was amazing. Of course my guts had completely knotted themselves up out of nervousness, but all is well. Oh, yeah, thanks Tharja for not hexing anyone today." Tharja simply leant back in her chair and smirked. "Ok, onto the mushy stuff. I wouldn't be here today, if it wasn't for you, Lucina. And when I say that, I mean I wouldn't be around _anywhere._ A few days before you joined the Shepherds, I wasn't in the greatest of moods anymore. Chrom, you noticed didn't you? You tried to help, but something inside me felt dead. It made me pick up my Levin Sword and hold it against my chest sometimes. But when you joined the Shepherds and started talking to me that feeling completely dispersed. I now know that the feeling was caused by Grima, but you literally saved me from dying. If that isn't enough proof of how much you've changed my life, then I hope today suffices. I love you a lot, Lucina, and you make me happier than anything else in the world. Yes, even happier than when Henry put a smile curse on me." Robin and Lucina's faces were both bright red. Robin sat down and gave Lucina a quick kiss. The Shepherds cheered for the both of them, and after a few seconds of wild clapping Lucina got round to her speech, the final speech of the evening.

"It's going to be hard following up all of those other speeches, but here goes. I know that many of you already know about my... Past, but I think it's high time that the people in this room who don't know can... Well...Know. On one condition: You never let any of this information leave this room. As far as you are all concerned, I'm just Chrom's cousin who was raised in isolation as a child. Understand?" all the nobles and foreign dignitaries in the room nodded, eager to know the truth. They were all kind people, and would never let anything private become public knowledge. Years of waging war and greed had made all the nobles seem like spoiled brats who pranced around in purple coats all day. In actuality, many of them just quietly governed their counties and helped out the Halidom of Ylisse when it needed extra soldiers, or funds. "All of my friends and I on this table come from the future. A future where the skies were dark, and Grima had killed everyone. We were among the last few survivors. I am actually Chrom's daughter, the same person as Lucia but from the future." Sumia had distracted Lucia's attention during that last part to make sure she didn't hear. The tone in the room became a lot more sombre. "We arrived in this time to stop Grima, and make sure that nobody's parents die again. We were originally going to stay away from the Shepherds and only intervene when we needed to, but we were all scattered. During our travel through time. I was the first to join the Shepherds, then Kjelle and Owain arrived next. One by one, all of my friends regrouped, and we decided it would be in our best interests to stay in this time and help out. A lot of you in this room have a lot of... _Colourful_ words to describe me, such as 'ice queen' or 'bratty harlot," Sumia put her hands over Lucia's ears as she listed off a lot of different words, "but honestly? I don't blame you. I was too steadfast and rude to really talk to anyone in the beginning. I _was_ , but then a certain tactician wormed his way into my heart. If it wasn't for you, Robin, I would still be a stuck up woman who would be on everyone's bad terms. Even when I thought killing you was a good idea, which in hindsight was a ridiculous decision of mine, you still stayed with me... Up until the very end." Lucina took a moment to stop herself from crying, "I went back to being even more distant than I was before. I even turned my blade on Morgan in that Feroxi tournament, for Naga's sake!... And then when you came back just a couple of months ago, I couldn't be happier. Nothing in this world would make me happier than staying here, surrounded by my friends, raising a family with you. Thank you everybody for showing up today, and thank you Robin for always being there for me." Lucina sat down the largest round of applause out of them all. She sat herself on Robin's lap and the two of them put their heads close together. Morgan and Lucia both cheered and all the nobles in the room were impressed with her story. They made sure that nobody else would know (giving the Shepherds some privacy was the least they could do for saving the world), and some of them came over to say nice things to the two newlyweds.

The feasting and story sharing had gone long into the night, and eventually Robin and Lucina had to leave for their honeymoon. Cherche had allowed the couple to use Minvera for transportation and the wyvern had been decorated with a large "Just Married!" sign attatched to her tail. She also had a matching hat that was bright pink and blue.

"Are you sure Minerva will be able to fly with a sign on her tail?"

"Minerva has proven herself capable of carrying five Shepherds at once. She'll be fine." Minerva snorted proudly. She was very intelligent for a wyvern, mainly due to Cherche's outstanding ability to translate screeches and roars into audible speech. Robin bowed in front of the dragon and she lowered her back. As well as being intelligent, Minerva could also be very stubborn. If a Shepherd didn't have pink hair or a mask, it would take a lot for Minerva to trust them. Grabbing hold of her reins, Robin pulled himself onto her back. He held out a hand to Lucina and helped her climb onto the scaly mount.

"Have you ever ridden a wyvern before?"

"Nope! Not once in my life. Luckily for me, Minerva's an automatic!" Lucina looked at Robin with a confused expression. "You've been making jokes all evening but when I make a joke you don't... Nevermind." Robin turned his head and cracked one final smile at Chrom, who was standing in the doorway. In response Chrom rolled his eyes and waved at the duo as Minerva flapped her wings and took off.

The view of Ylisse from Minerva's back was incredible, to say the least. After having to travel on foot for so long during the war, neither Robin nor Lucina had really taken in the sights. While the south was mainly flat, northern Ylisse was a lot more rocky and vertical than it appeared, especially as they neared the Feroxi border. They spent an entire hour gazing at the vast landscape, before Lucina broke out of her trance and yawned. It hadn't occurred to her how tired she was-especially since she had gotten adjusted to getting more sleep, staying awake for longer periods of time had become progressively more difficult for her.

"I know how you feel. I could really use a rest right now." Robin shuffled slightly. His legs were numb from sitting down.

"Wherever we're going, I hope we can get some rest."

"Well you'll be pleased to know that I chose somewhere _very_ relaxing."

"Would you mind telling me?"

"But that would ruin the surprise!" Robin shot a sideways glance at Lucina and she pouted. "Those puppy-dog eyes of your aren't going to work tonight." Robin tried as best he could not to feel bad, but Lucina had learned from Morgan how to pull off the "I'm really sweet and innocent" look. After a while, Robin gave up. "Fine, fine. I'll tell you."

"I knew you would understand, dear." Lucina giggled and yawned again.

"I'm going to build a resistance to those looks of your one day."

"Which is why I'm going to use them while I can. Now, back to what we were talking about: Where _are_ we going?"

"I'm sure you'll enjoy it. I looked back on stuff we've done together already, and I found one thing we haven't done yet. I hope you like hot springs, because it's time the two of us had a nice, long bath."

 **A/N: Hooray for weddings! I hope this chapter was fluffy enough. This chapter is one my favourites, and I hope it was fun to read. Unfortunately, this might be the last update for a while. I've got mock exams starting next Monday, and they're going to be taking up nearly all of my time as well as revision. But don't worry! I WILL see this story through to the end!... Eventually.**


	8. Chapter 5&Flashback 4: Well-needed rest

"Are you sure we're going the right way?"

"This time we have to be. I'm certain."

"You've said that twice already, and both times you were wrong."

"Uh... Third time's the charm?"

Lucina rolled her eyes and yawned. After arriving at the hot springs, they had been given a map by Anna to guide them towards the inn that they were going to stay at. They had ended up right back where they had started several times, much to Anna's amusement (and their chagrin).

"Hang on... I _think_ the inn's just up ahead..." Robin peered through the fog, looking for any indication that they were going the right way. He soon found the indication he needed when he tripped up a small flight of stairs that seemingly appeared out of thin air.

"Robin! Are you you ok?"

"Scratch that, I'm positive that we've finally found the inn." he picked himself up off the floor, and felt through the fog for any signs of a door handle.

"I could do with a good night's rest after all that's happened today." eventually, Robin's hand latched onto the handle, and with a sigh of relief he pushed the door open. The Anna who was stationed behind the counter was fast asleep, despite being sat in a very uncomfortable looking wooden chair. Behind her was several large cupboards full of keys and strange looking pieces of fabric. Robin walked up to the counter and cleared his throat. The Anna sitting in the chair jolted slightly and her eyes snapped open.

"Oh, hello! You're... Hmm..." Anna quickly peeked down at a piece of paper on the desk in front of her "ah, you're Robin and Lucina, right?" they both nodded their heads.

"We finally managed to get here in the end." Lucina said with a smile.

"Jeez, you took your sweet time," Anna muttered under her breath, "I'll fetch your key for you." she spun around and got out of her chair and was rummaging around in the cupboards before the duo could even process what was going on.

"I swear it was in here somewhere... 105...106...No, that's not it...Ah! There we go!" Anna held a small golden key firmly in her hand and almost threw it at the counter as she spun around again to sit back in her chair. Robin hastily swiped the key and put it in his pocket. "Your room is number 110, just go up three flights of stairs and carry on going left! You can't miss it!" Anna leaned back and closed her eyes. "Oh, and don't worry. I'll be out of your hair soon. You have the entire place to yourselves for a couple of nights, if you wanna... Y'know..." the merchant grinned and Robin's face went bright red.

"Hey!" Robin spluttered, "...Well, I don't know." he shot a glance at Lucina (complete with a wink) and in return, she gave him the most innocent confused expression.

"Oh, and congrats on the whole marriage business!"Anna beamed, her eyes still closed, "who would've guessed that she would've ended up marrying the main villain?"

"For your information, I am NOT the villain! I was simply manipul-" Robin was cut short when Lucina grabbed him by the collar and dragged him away from the counter (and the sound of Anna laughing).

"Now is not the time for arguing, dear."

"I wasn't arguing, I was _informing..._ Also, I think my collar's about to rip..." Robin fidgeted but he couldn't escape his wife's iron grasp. By the second flight of stairs, he had stopped resisting entirely.

"Our room is somewhere down this corridor," Lucina finally let go of the tactician and he narrowly avoided falling (again), "ah! There it is!" The door was right on the end of the corridor, perpendicular to a large window that gave a pleasant view of the hot springs as they were illuminated by the glow of several lanterns. Catching up with the princess, Robin felt around in his pocket until he found the key, and placed it firmly in the door lock. With a gentle click, the door swung open.

"Finally, we can get some rest..." Lucina sighed, and she stepped wearily into the room. The room in question had dark red walls, and a large wooden wardrobe opposite a gigantic bed easily had room for four people. There was a small oil lantern on a desk to the right of the bed which gave the space a warm and cosy feel. As Robin went to inspect the cupboards, Lucina let herself fall on the bed.

"Luckily for us, there's some clothes for us to change into in here." Robin knelt down and picked up two sets of clothing-one was a shirt and a pair of trousers that were both beige, and a light blue nightgown which had lace all around the edges. "There's even enough to last us for our entire honeymoon! I really have to give Anna-that is, _all_ the Annas a lot more credit."

"This bed is so... Soft." Lucina was almost fully asleep sprawled out on the bed. Robin couldn't help but let out a chuckle. It was rare for Lucina to ever act so relaxed (especially to this degree), so whenever she did he made sure to take in the moment.

"You're really that tired, eh?"

"After walking around in this dress all day? Yes, yes I am. Don't get me wrong, I love this dress-but being in it for hours on end has made me incredibly fatigued." the princess rolled over and sat up. Robin handed her the nightgown and they both began getting changed. After a few minutes, they had both slipped under the covers of the huge bed.

"Today has been one of the best days of my life,"Robin grinned, "and I'm glad that I got to share it with you."

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Lucina giggled and wrapped her arms around her husband, holding him close, "Thank you for making today so... So special."

"That's the job of a crack tactician for you-to make the impossible possible, and to make sure the love of his life is always content."

"If that's your job, then you're doing a spectacular job of it."

"I'll have to see what else I can do to make you happy, in that case." Robin gently rested his head against Lucina's collar bone.

"You probably have plenty of ideas in mind, don't you?"

"Heh... Of course, my love. Of course."

"I could get used to being called that..."

The newlywed couple spent a while in each other's arms, before drifting off to sleep. That night, Robin recalled another one of his most prominent memories...

* * *

The sounds of thunder and hollow groaning filled the valleys and slipped through the forests. They skies had become shrouded in the ominous, pale purple cowl of the Fell Dragon.

Grima's dragon form had been re-awoken, and was gaining strength with incredible speed.

The shepherds were at the base of Mt Prism and they were all ready to help Chrom unlock Falchion's true power. Of course, Grima had noticed them, and had sent wave after wave of Risen in their direction. The swarms had gotten increasingly violent, leading to many injuries and almost three deaths-Gaius nearly had his head lopped off by a tomahawk, Gregor had been pierced through the lung by a spear, and Basilio was lucky to have both his legs. Worry had begun to surface around their makeshit camp, as they became divided on Robin's involvement. He was the vessel for Grima, after all. Could they really trust him? What if he was suddenly possessed by Grima again? Those were just a couple of the many questions that had sparked debate between the once-close band of warriors. The tactician in question had distanced himself from both sides. After learning through one of Lady Tiki's spiritual connections with Naga that he could permanently kill Grima at the cost of his life, he had been weighing his options.

On one hand, Chrom and Lucina's entire mission revolved around stopping Grima. Would allowing Chrom to return him to slumber give them the sense of accomplishment they need? But then, their ancestors would have to finish the job, and there was no guarantee of success 1000 years ahead. On the the other hand, what is one life stacked against millions of others? Of course he feared death, everyone did (even a little), but then everyone and all of the generations to come would be safe from the Fell Dragon's wrath. Was it right to die to ensure that humanity was safe?

He simply did not know.

Most of his time was spent keeping his mind off of the current events- whether that be via rummaging through weapon crates or adding notes to the Shepherd's roster. Right now he scrawling down a few extra sentences about Gerome in the large handbook, while sitting on a crate full of weapons deemed 'sacred', or 'holy'.

"... To r _emind Cherche to check on his sleeping habits-to ensure he is at his peak physical performance, going to sleep three hours earlier would give him a sufficient amount of rest. He could also do with some..."_ Robin took the quill pen off the paper and tapped his chin with the tip of the feather that sprouted out of the top.

"What _could_ Gerome do more with? Friends, perhaps?" he mused out loud and thought of different ways to end the sentence in his head. He heard the familiar sound of boots on the grass outside the tent, and placed the book (and quill pen) down next to him on the chest.

"Hello, Lucina." before she had even entered the tent Robin knew it was her. For one, she could always find where he was hiding with a quick peek into a tent or two, no matter where he was. Robin had also begun the recognise the sound of Falchion rubbing against its scabbard slightly, which created a quiet clanking noise as the lord walked.

"Ah, Robin. I came to talk."

"Well that much is obvious, heh."

"This is something incredibly important. Please try to take it seriously." Lucina's face was drenched with sweat and her mouth was always curled into a tight frown. Over the last few days she had been incredibly stressed out, due to the Fell Dragon's return. She had taken extra care whenever she had to cook, or polish armour, or anything of the sort-she didn't 'want to see another Ylissean life taken', in her own words.

"I am taking this seriously. At this point we can't afford to fool around." Robin gazed intently at Lucina who stood directly in front of him.

"It's about the... The solution, to Grima."

"Ah. Well, I haven't come to a decision, if that's what you're-"

"I am _NOT_ going to let you strike Grima down with your own hand." if Robin's gaze was intense, then the cerulean haired princess' was downright demonic. He couldn't help but shrink back a little under her powerful stare.

"What? But Grima will just return to sleep! We must-"

"My mission was to stop Grima. Father has the power to do this, without any more lives being lost. If Grima returns in 1000 years, so be it-the descendants of Father will be more than capable of taking care of Grima. And they may even find a permanent solution then."

"But there _is_ a permanent solution-one that takes care of all your problems! Naga even said that there's the chance I won't die! And even if I do, even if I'm killed, I'll make my way back to the Shepherds... To you."

"DON'T PROMISE SUCH THINGS!"Lucina yelled, closing her eyes and balling her fists. "I told you, there is no more need-or _WANT-_ for any more deaths. We have the solution we need right here!" Robin stayed silent. "As much as I want Grima to be completely erased from this world, from all the worlds that may be out there, I would much rather be able to simply brush those problems aside and not have to worry about them for the rest of my life. This way, I-no, _we_ can resolve our problems, and spend the rest of our lives together. Do you understand? I want to be with you Robin, and not just with your memories, or your legacy, I want to be with _you._ In person." Lucina knelt down and stayed at eye level with Robin. "Please, please promise me that you'll let Father land the finishing blow. I need to hear it from you."

Robin was silent for a second. He was still incredibly conflicted in his mind. Hundreds of different 'what ifs?' buzzed around his head. Reluctantly, he lifted his head and spoke.

"I... I promise." He took hold of Lucina's hand and held it firmly with both of his. "I promise that I won't leave you. Not now. Not ever. I will let Chrom take down Grima."

"...Thank you, Robin. Thank you so much..." Lucina sniffed, and let a small smile surface on her face. "Knowing this takes a lot of the strain off my mind." she freed her hand from Robin's grip, and turned to leave. "The few battles we have left will be among our most difficult yet, but I have faith that we'll see them through. Together."Wiping a few stray tears from her eyes, Lucina left the tent and soon vanished back into the violet yonder that waited outside.

"Oh gods, Lucina..." Robin lowered his head and clenched his eyes shut. He pictured in his head little events; the perfect scenarios that would follow after Grima's demise. Being able to marry the love of his life. He could see them standing in front of an altar, hand in hand. Being there on his child's first birthday. He was able to point out all the smiles of the people there, and even imagined what his child's face would be like. He dreamt of the night sky on a clear day, and being able to go out stargazing with Lucina. He could see the sense of wonder in her eyes, and awe that came with being able to map out the constellations and take in the beauty of it all. He then pictured all of these moments again, but with little seeds of doubt sowed in his mind; the guilt and shame that came with them. The sense of unfinished desires. and worry clawing at the back of his mind.

That was when he decided.

Grima was NOT allowed to survive their final encounter.

"Lucina, I am so, so sorry for breaking our promise, but I cannot sit idly by knowing that one day that bastard dragon will terrorise the world again." Robin spoke quietly out loud. "I would do everything and anything in the world to be with you, but most of all I want you to be happy. And if Grima is allowed to live, then that can't happen. And I'm sorry. But my mind is set. Grima _WILL_ die by my-and his-own hand. And I will make damn well sure that I make it back to you...

... _That,_ I promise."

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 **A/N: It's finally here! I'm so, SO sorry for the huge wait! A lot of unfortunate things happened in a short space of time, and I my desire to write was put out like a candle. But don't worry, I'm getting back into the swing of things! And I hope this chapter will suffice!**


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